tower of silence
English
WOTD – 26 December 2022
Etymology
Calque of French tour du silence,[1] from the fact that human voices are generally not heard at such places.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌtaʊɚ‿əv ˈsaɪl(ə)ns/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˌtaʊɚ‿əv ˈsaɪləns/
- Rhymes: -aɪləns
- Hyphenation: tow‧er of sil‧ence
Noun
tower of silence (plural towers of silence)
- (Zoroastrianism) A low, cylindrical, open-topped tower where Zoroastrians place the bodies of deceased people to disintegrate from exposure and consumption by carrion birds such as vultures, the remaining bones being kept in an ossuary.
- Synonyms: dakhma, doongerwadi
Translations
low, cylindrical open-topped tower where Zoroastrians place the bodies of deceased people to disintegrate
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See also
References
- “Tower of Silence, n.” under “silence, n. and int.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2022.
Further reading
- Tower of Silence on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- Tower of Silence (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- “tower of silence, n.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Stuart Berg Flexner, editor in chief, Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1993, →ISBN.
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