tower of silence
English
WOTD – 26 December 2022
Etymology
The Yazd Tower of Silence in Yazd, Iran, which is no longer in use since the practice of excarnation was banned in the 1960s.
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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