‖ drachma
(ˈdrækmə)
Also 6–7 dragma. Pl. -mas, also -mæ, (6–7 -maes).
[a. L. drachma, a. Gr. δραχµή drachm. The form dragma is assimilated to OF. dragme, Pr. and med.L. dragma.]
1. = drachm 1. Also, the Jewish quarter-shekel.
| 1579–80 North Plutarch 378 (R.) Small pieces of money.. called oboli, whereof six made a drachma. 1581 Marbeck Bk. Notes 313 A Dragma is the fourth part of a Sickle, which is to saie fiue halfe-pence. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. iii. ii. 247 To euery seuerall man, seuenty fiue Drachmaes. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World ii. (1634) 322 Judas Macchabeus..sent thence ten thousand Dragmas. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 535 ¶7 He left him to the value of an hundred drachmas in Persian money. 1881 Jowett Thucyd. I. 178 Every one of the hoplites..received two drachmae a day. |
b. The standard silver coin of modern Greece, equivalent to the French franc and Italian lira.
| 1882 Bithell Counting-ho. Dict. (1893) 196. |
2. = drachm 2.
| 1527 Andrew Brunswyke's Distyll. Waters Dj, Myxced with Bolo Armeno and with lapide ematitis, of eche a dragma. 1632 Heywood 2nd Pt. Iron Age v. Wks. 1874 III. 426 [They] Will scarce weigh eleauen Dragmaes. 1807 Robinson Archæol. Græca v. xxvi. 551 Grecian weights reduced to..Troy weight: Drachma = 6 dwt. 222/49 grains. |