Dram

The Authorized Version understood the word ‘adarkonim (1 Chr. 29:7; Ezra 8:27), and the similar word darkomnim (Ezra 2:69; Neh. 7:70), as equivalent to the Greek silver coin the drachma. But the Revised Version rightly regards it as the Greek dareikos, a Persian gold coin (the daric) of the value of about 1 pound, 2s., which was first struck by Darius, the son of Hystaspes, and was current in Western Asia long after the fall of the Persian empire. (See DARIC.)

[Daric]

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. A weight; in Apothecaries' weight, one eighth part of an ounce, or sixty grains; in Avoirdupois weight, one sixteenth part of an ounce, or 27.34375 grains.

2. A minute quantity; a mite. Were I the chooser, a dram of well-doing should be preferred before many times as mush the forcible hindrance of evildoing. Milton.

3. As much spirituous liquor as is usually drunk at once; as, a dram of brandy; hence, a potation or potion; as, a dram of poison. Shak.

4. A Persian daric. Ezra ii. 69. Fluid dram, or Fluid drachm. See under Fluid.

Part of speech: verb (v.)

To drink drams; to ply with drams. [Low] Johnson. Thackeray.