From Middle English dan, daun, dam (“lord”), from Anglo-Norman daun, daunz and Old French dan, dam, from Latin dominus. Doublet of don.
Meanings
(obsolete) A title of honour or respect similar to "master" or "Sir", used of historical and legendary figures of the past.
Oh, me' name is Dan Homer, I'm blind, as the Jews, / And I travels around with my head full av news. 1962, A. D. Hope, The Ballad of Dan Homer:
He did—and in a moment press'd / The place—in Paradise the best, / As by Dan Moses said. 1777, James Perry, The Electrical Eel; or, Gymnotus Electricus:
Dan Phoebus, he with many a low'ring look / Had her beheld in yore in angry wise. 1578, George Gascoigne, “A Moonshine Banquet”, in A Hundred Sundry Flowers:
Old Dan Geoffrey, in whose gentle spright / The pure well-head of Poesy did dwell. 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
The patriarchal age, / What time Dan Abraham left the Chaldee land. 1748, James Thomson, The Castle of Indolence: […], London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:
This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, dan Cupid. c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
Dan Chaucer, the first warbler, whose sweet breath / Preluded those melodious bursts, that fill / The spacious times of great Elizabeth / With sounds that echo still. 1842, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, A Dream of Fair Women:
Dan Neptune says that "ere a twelvemonth pass, / The Senate shall to Ireland go to grass." 1846, Terence McMahon Hughes, The Biliad:
Carrying away of 25 great-lines, 3 dans, buoys, &c., of steam liner 'Star of the East'[…] 1913, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Parliamentary Papers: 1909-1982, page 165:
Dumping dans. Dan buoys laid to mark a dumping ground. They are fitted with a topmark in the shape of a St. Andrews cross formed by battens 2 feet in length. Live dan. Dan buoy for which a[…] 1917, United States. Office of Naval Intelligence, O.N.I. Publications, page 17:
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dans
Number=Plur
lexicographic
dan en · ADP · etymology 6
Meanings
(alt-of, pronunciation-spelling) Pronunciation spelling of than.
It's easy. It's nothin'. It's less dan nothin'. 2004, Intelligent Systems, translated by Nintendo of America, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Nintendo, GameCube, level/area: Rogueport:
Relateds
dan tranh (Other terms with "dan" of unrelated etymology) · dan nguyet (Other terms with "dan" of unrelated etymology) · dan ty ba (Other terms with "dan" of unrelated etymology) · dan nhi (Other terms with "dan" of unrelated etymology) · dan dan noodles (Other terms with "dan" of unrelated etymology) · dan bau (Other terms with "dan" of unrelated etymology) · dan day (Other terms with "dan" of unrelated etymology)