Dictionary

tanga en · NOUN · etymology 1

Meanings

1. (historical) Any of various former Asian coins, including: a coin of Portuguese India worth one tenth of a rupee; a gold coin of India issued by various Muslim rulers; a silver coin of India, also issued by Muslim rulers; and a former silver coin of Tibet.
   • The prices range from 120 tangas = Rupees 25 to 400 tangas = Rupees 80. 1875, Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873, under command of Sir T[homas] D. Forsyth, page 73:
   • The larines are woorth by just value basaruchies 93 and 3 fourth parts, and 4 larines make a seraphine of siluer, which is 5 tangas of good money, and these also haue serafagion of 6, 7, 8, 10, vntil 16, by the 100, for when the ships depart for the North, to say, for Chaul, Diu, Cambaia, or Bassaim, all cary of the same, because it is money more currant then any other. 1810, Richard Haklvyt, Hakluyt's Collection of the Early Voyages, Travels, and DIscoveries of the English Nation- Volume 2, page 410:
   • The first and largest item is, the purchase of a wife, 25 rupees. Culinary and other utensils.--Bedding, 6 rupees; antimony for the lady's eyes, 3 tangas : an iron boiler, 2 rupees; a wooden bowl and spoons, 3 tangas; .... 1841, The Literary Gazette and Journal of the Belles Lettres, page 136:
   • Three-sevenths, or 300,000 tangas (100,000 Kabul rupees) were remitted to the Amir as tribute, whilst the remaining sum, 400,000 tangas (Rs. 133,333), was retained by the wali for his own expenses. 1996, Jonathan L. Lee, The "Ancient Supremacy":, →ISBN:
   • The Samarkand tangas were initially 916 carats, and then rose to 960 carats. Lower-carat tangas were issued in Balkh (875 carats, 916 carats) and in Tashkent. Nevertheless, even the tangas issued under Iskandar Khan are referred to in documentary sources as 'pure'. 2003, Ahmad Hasan Dani, Vadim Mikhaĭlovich Masson, History of Civilizations of Central Asia, →ISBN:

Forms

tanga en · NOUN · etymology 2

Etymology

From Portuguese tanga, from Kimbundu tanga or ntanga (“coarse cloth; loincloth”).

Meanings

1. A pair of tanga briefs.

Forms