dunam
English
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Hebrew דּוּנָם (dunam) or (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Arabic دُونُم (dūnum), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Turkish dönüm, from dönmek (“to turn”).[1] A probable calque of (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Byzantine Greek unit στρέμμα (strémma, “stremma”, literally “that which is turned”).
Pronunciation
Noun
dunam (plural dunams)
- (historical) An Ottoman Turkish unit of surface area nominally equal to 1,600 square (Turkish) paces but actually varied at a provincial and local level according to land quality to accommodate its colloquial sense of the amount of land able to be plowed in a day, roughly equivalent to the Byzantine stremma or English acre.
- 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses:
- You pay eight marks and they plant a dunam of land for you with olives, oranges, almonds or citrons.
- 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses:
- A modern Turkish unit of surface area equal to a decare (1000 m²), equivalent to the modern Greek stremma.
- Various other units in other areas of the former Ottoman Empire, usually equated to the decare but sometimes varying (as in Iraq, where it is 2500 m²).
Synonyms
References
- ^ OED, 2nd edition (1989, online)
Anagrams
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- English terms derived from Hebrew
- English terms derived from Arabic
- English terms derived from Turkish
- English terms derived from Byzantine Greek
- English 2-syllable words
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- Rhymes:English/ʊnəm
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- en:Units of measure