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, from the fact that human voices are generally not heard at such places.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌtaʊɚ‿əv ˈsaɪl(ə)ns/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (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 (lṙutʻyan 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)
• Gujarati: દખમું n (dakhmũ), દોખમું n (dokhmũ)
• 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 (ru) (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

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.