Dan

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Dan \Dan\ (d[a^]n), n. [OE. dan, danz, OF. danz (prop. only
     nom.), dan, master, fr. L. dominus. See {Dame}.]
     A title of honor equivalent to master, or sir. [Obs.]
     [1913 Webster]
  
           Old Dan Geoffry, in gently spright


           The pure wellhead of poetry did dwell.   --Spenser.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           What time Dan Abraham left the Chaldee land. --Thomson.
     [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Dan \Dan\, n. [Etymol. uncertain.] (Mining)
     A small truck or sledge used in coal mines.
     [1913 Webster]

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Dan
     a judge. (1.) The fifth son of Jacob. His mother was Bilhah,
     Rachel's maid (Gen. 30:6, "God hath judged me", Heb. dananni).
     The blessing pronounced on him by his father was, "Dan shall
     judge his people" (49:16), probably in allusion to the judgeship
     of Samson, who was of the tribe of Dan.
     
       The tribe of Dan had their place in the march through the
     wilderness on the north side of the tabernacle (Num. 2:25, 31;
     10:25). It was the last of the tribes to receive a portion in
     the Land of Promise. Its position and extent are described in
     Josh. 19:40-48.
     
       The territory of Dan extended from the west of that of Ephraim
     and Benjamin to the sea. It was a small territory, but was very
     fertile. It included in it, among others, the cities of Lydda,
     Ekron, and Joppa, which formed its northern boundary. But this
     district was too limited. "Squeezed into the narrow strip
     between the mountains and the sea, its energies were great
     beyond its numbers." Being pressed by the Amorites and the
     Philistines, whom they were unable to conquer, they longed for a
     wider space. They accordingly sent out five spies from two of
     their towns, who went north to the sources of the Jordan, and
     brought back a favourable report regarding that region. "Arise,"
     they said, "be not slothful to go, and to possess the land," for
     it is "a place where there is no want of any thing that is in
     the earth" (Judg. 18:10). On receiving this report, 600 Danites
     girded on their weapons of war, and taking with them their wives
     and their children, marched to the foot of Hermon, and fought
     against Leshem, and took it from the Sidonians, and dwelt
     therein, and changed the name of the conquered town to Dan
     (Josh. 19:47). This new city of Dan became to them a new home,
     and was wont to be spoken of as the northern limit of Palestine,
     the length of which came to be denoted by the expression "from
     Dan to Beersheba", i.e., about 144 miles.
     
       "But like Lot under a similar temptation, they seem to have
     succumbed to the evil influences around them, and to have sunk
     down into a condition of semi-heathenism from which they never
     emerged. The mounds of ruins which mark the site of the city
     show that it covered a considerable extent of ground. But there
     remains no record of any noble deed wrought by the degenerate
     tribe. Their name disappears from the roll-book of the natural
     and the spiritual Israel.", Manning's Those Holy Fields.
     
       This old border city was originally called Laish. Its modern
     name is Tell el-Kady, "Hill of the Judge." It stands about four
     miles below Caesarea Philippi, in the midst of a region of
     surpassing richness and beauty.
     
       (2.) This name occurs in Ezek 27:19, Authorize Version; but
     the words there, "Dan also," should be simply, as in the Revised
     Version, "Vedan," an Arabian city, from which various kinds of
     merchandise were brought to Tyre. Some suppose it to have been
     the city of Aden in Arabia. (See MAHANEH-{DAN}.)
     

From Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's) [hitchcock]:

  Dan, judgment; he that judges