From Arabic 'ḥaram' (sacred, forbidden) — fundamentally a private sanctuary, reduced by European usage to an Orientalist concept.
The separate part of a Muslim household reserved for wives, concubines, and female servants; the women occupying such quarters; by extension, a group of female animals sharing a single mate.
From Arabic 'ḥarīm' (حريم) or 'ḥaram' (حرم), meaning 'sacred, forbidden, inviolable, set apart.' The Arabic triliteral root ḥ-r-m (ح-ر-م) carries the fundamental meaning of something set apart as sacred or prohibited — a concept that encompasses both holiness and taboo, reverence and restriction. The word denotes the private, women's quarters of a household — the space that is 'ḥarām' (forbidden) to outsiders, especially unrelated men. The same root generates
The words 'harem' (the sacred private quarters) and 'haram' (forbidden, as in forbidden food or actions in Islamic law) share the same Arabic root ḥ-r-m — so 'harem' does not mean 'a collection of women' but rather 'a sanctuary that is inviolable,' emphasizing privacy and sanctity rather than the Orientalist fantasies that European usage projected onto it.