dam (Garo)
Where does "dam" come from?
The word 'dam' as used in Garo is a loanword from Bengali, where it refers to price or cost. This term traces its ultimate roots back to the Ancient Greek 'drachmē', a word related to the act of holding. Over centuries, the term traveled from Greek into Sanskrit and eventually into Bengali, shifting along the way from representing a unit of Greek currency to the more abstract concept of monetary value.
Full etymology tree
- dam (Garo), 'price'
- borrowed দাম (dam) (Bengali), 'price, cost, value, worth'
- inherited damma (Magadhi Prakrit)
- inherited द्रम्म (dramma) (Sanskrit), 'drachma (Greek coin)'
- borrowed δραχμή (drakhmḗ) (Ancient Greek), 'drachma'
- derived δράσσομαι (drássomai) (Ancient Greek), 'to grasp with the hand, clutch'
- inherited unknown substrate term (Pre-Greek)
- borrowed δραχμή (drakhmḗ) (Ancient Greek), 'drachma'
- inherited द्रम्म (dramma) (Sanskrit), 'drachma (Greek coin)'
- inherited damma (Magadhi Prakrit)
- borrowed দাম (dam) (Bengali), 'price, cost, value, worth'
Ancestors
- দাম (Bengali)
Updated June 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris