‖ medine
(mɛˈdiːn)
Also 6, 9 medin, 6 madyne, madayne, madien, 7 madin, madein, meydine, meidin, 8 medina, 9 medeen, medino.
[a. F. medin (Cotgr.), a. vulgar Arab. mayyidī, corrupt form of mu'ayyidīy, from the name Mu'ayyad: see below.]
Originally, a silver half-dirhem first issued by the Sultan al-Mu'ayyad (15th c.); latterly, a copper coin current in Egypt, Syria, etc., valued at 1/40 of a piastre, or 1/20 of a penny. (The Turkish name is para; in Egyptian Arabic it was commonly called faḍḍa{suph}, i.e. ‘silver’.)
| 1583 J. Newbery in Hakluyt's Voy. (1599) II. i. 247, 40 medins maketh a duckat. ― Let. in Purchas Pilgrims (1625) II. ix. 1643 Nutmegs fortie fiue Madynes, Ginger the Batman, one ducket Pepper seuentie fiue Madaynes. 1584 W. Barret in Hakluyt's Voy. (1599) II. i. 271, 47 medines passe in value as the duckat of gold of Venice. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. (1621) 153 Paying by the way two Medines a head. 1753 Bp. Clayton Jrnl. fr. Cairo to Sinai 5 Sept. 1722 note, A medina is 1d1/5 English money. 1819 T. Hope Anastasius (1820) II. ii. 38 My Coobtic writer, who, with a salary of six medeens a day,..had become..as rich as a Sultan's seraf. 1833 J. Bennett Artificer's Compl. Lex., Medin, in Egypt 3 aspers; at Aleppo is [etc.]. |