Etymology From Middle English dan, daun, dam (“lord”), from Anglo-Norman daun, daunz and Old French dan, dam, from Latin dominus. Doublet of don.
1
Obsolete A title of honour or respect similar to "master" or "Sir", used of historical and legendary figures of the past.
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:
4 more examples
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):
The patriarchal age, / What time Dan Abraham left the Chaldee land.1748, James Thomson, The Castle of Indolence: […], London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:
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 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:
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:
Etymology From the pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 担 (dàn) and Chinese 石 (dàn).
1
Synonym of picul: a traditional unit of weight and mass, chiefly used as a dry measure of grains.
Units of measurement
2
A traditional unit of equivalent volume, now officially equal to 100 liters.
Units of measurement
dan
noun
Etymology Uncertain.
1
A dan buoy.
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: