avania

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A tax or fee imposed on foreigners under the Ottoman Empire, especially one considered to be irregular or extortionate.

Pronunciation

/ˌavəˈniːə/ ăv'ə-nē􂀽'ə

Word forms

avania avanias

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian avania, from Byzantine Greek ἀβανία (abanía, cfr. modern Greek αβανιά (avaniá) “defamation, slander”), possibly from Arabic خَوَّان (ḵawwān, “unreliable, treacherous”).

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.