dirhem
Pluraldirhems
- 1Alternative form of dirham.
The trader counted out a handful of dirhems to settle the debt.
A worn dirhem from the old mint turned up in the excavation.
Note
The spelling shows which road the word took: -em follows Turkish dirhem, while -am keeps the Arabic and Persian dirham. The coin was named for its weight, one Turkish unit of weight of silver, so sharing a spelling with it is natural. For the present-day currencies of Morocco and the United Arab Emirates, dirham is the name in use. Dirhem suits Turkish history, and its plural is dirhems.
- 2A former small Turkish unit of weight, reckoned variously between about 1.5 and 3.5 grams.
Similar to how a carat is used today to weigh small, valuable things like gemstones.
The apothecary measured each dose in dirhems, rarely more than two at a time.
A single dirhem of saffron commanded a high price in the bazaar.
Note
Behind the name is the Greek drachma: the word traveled from Ancient Greek drakhmḗ through Middle Persian, Arabic, Persian and Ottoman Turkish, and it is a doublet of dram. English writers often just called it a dram or drachm. W.M.F. Petrie's Encyclopaedia Britannica of 1888 reckons that dram at 49.5 grains, 180 to the rotl, so a dram in old tables from Aleppo or Syria may mean this Turkish weight.
Use it in a sentence
Write your own sentence with dirhem, and AI will tell you whether it fits and which meaning you used.
Origin
Borrowed from Turkish dirhem, from Ottoman Turkish dirhem, itself from Persian dirham and Arabic dirham, which came through Middle Persian from Ancient Greek δραχμή (drakhmḗ). It is a doublet of dram, drachma, diram, dirham, and adarme.