hounfour

English

Alternative forms

• hounfor
• ounfò

Etymology

From Haitian Creole oungfò.

Noun

hounfour (plural hounfours)

1. A voodoo temple.
   • 1953, Maya Deren, Divine Horsemen, McPherson & Company, published 2004, page 47:

     A stretch of straw mats is laid on the ground leading from the door of the hounfor.

   • 1985, Wade Davis, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Simon & Schuster, page 47:

     I arrived around ten and was taken into the peristyle, the roofed court of the hounfour, and was led around a semicircle of tables to the one where Beauvoir sat at the head.

   • 1995, Marilyn Houlberg, in Cosentino (ed.), Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou, South Sea International Press 1998, p. 276:

     In the afternoon, Magda and I went out to purchase some gifts: perfume for Ezili and a bottle of rum for the ounfò.

   • 2011, Kyle William Bishop, American Zombie Gothic, page 88:

     Because her Western science has failed to restore Jessica to health, Betsy secretly takes her charge to see the houngan priest at the hounfour for help.