tower of silence

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)

1. (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

Arabic: بُرْج الصَّمْت‎ m (burj aṣ-ṣamt) Armenian: լռության աշտարակ (lṙutʿyan aštarak) Azerbaijani: dəxmə Basque: isiltasunaren dorreak Bulgarian: кули на мълчанието (kuli na mǎlčanieto), дакма (dakma) Catalan: torre del silenci f Czech: věže mlčení Esperanto: silentoturo Estonian: vaikuse torn Finnish: hiljaisuuden torni French: tour du silence (fr) f German: Dachma Greek: πύργος της σιωπής m (pýrgos tis siopís) Hebrew: מגדלי שתיקה‎ Hindi: दखमा (hi) (dakhmā) Indonesian: menara kesunyian Italian: torre del silenzio f Japanese: 沈黙の塔 (ちんもくのとう, chinmokunotō), ダフマ Korean: 침묵의 탑 (chimmugui tap) Macedonian: ку́ла на тиши́ната f (kúla na tišínata), да́хма f (dáhma) Malay: dakhma, menara bungkam Norwegian: Bokmål: dakhma Ottoman Turkish: دخمه‎ (dahme) Persian: دخمه‎ (fa) (daxme) Polish: dakhma, wieża milczenia f Portuguese: torre do silêncio f Russian: башня молчания f (bašnja molčanija), да́хма (dáxma) Serbo-Croatian: Roman: tóranj šutnje m Spanish: torre del silencio f Swedish: dakhma, tystnadens torn Tajik: дахма (daxma) Tamil: அமைதியின் கோபுரம் (amaitiyiṉ kōpuram) Thai: แดฆแมฮ์ Turkish: dahme Ukrainian: вежа мовчання f (veža movčannja), дахме (daxme) Urdu: دخمہ‎ (daxma) Uzbek: daxma (uz)

See also

• sky burial

References

1. “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.