What is "dan"

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.]

Old Dan Geoffry, in gently spright The pure wellhead of poetry did dwell.
--Spenser.

What time Dan Abraham left the Chaldee land.
--Thomson.

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

title of address to members of religious orders, c.1300, from Old French dan (Modern French dom), from Latin dominus "lord" (source of Portuguese don, Spanish don, Italian donno; see don (n.)).

familiar form of masc. proper name Daniel.

name of one of the 12 tribes of ancient Israel or its territory, named for its founder; literally "he who judges," related to Hebrew din "to judge." In the Old Testament, it occupied the northernmost part of Israel, hence its use proverbially for "utmost extremity," as in in from Dan to Beersheba (the southernmost region), 1738.

Etymology 1 n. 1 A rank of black belt in martial arts 2 Someone who has achieved a level of black belt Etymology 2

n. (context mining English) A small truck or sledge used in coal mines. Etymology 3

n. (context obsolete English) (non-gloss definition: A title of honour equivalent to "master" or "sir".)

Dan , is a city mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, described as the northernmost city of the Kingdom of Israel, and belonging to the tribe of Dan. The city is identified with the tell known as Tel Dan (תל דן "Mound of Dan") in Hebrew, or Tell el- Qadi (تل القاضي "Mound of the Judge") in Arabic, located in northern Israel.

Dan is the name of one or more legendary kings of the Danes, mentioned in medieval Scandinavian texts.

The ranking system is used by many Japanese organizations (and Korean martial arts) to indicate the level of one's ability (expertise) within a certain subject matter. As a ranking system, it was originally used at a go school during the Edo period. It is now also used in modern fine arts and martial arts.

The system was applied to martial arts in Japan by Kanō Jigorō (1860–1938), the founder of judo, in 1883, and later introduced to other East Asian countries. In the modern Japanese martial arts, holders of dan ranks often wear a black belt; those of higher rank may also wear red-and-white and red belts. Dan ranks are also given for strategic board games such as go, Japanese chess ( shōgi), and renju, as well as for cultural arts such as flower arrangement ( ikebana), Japanese calligraphy (shodō) and tea ceremony (sadō).　

The Chinese character for the word dan (段) literally means step or stage in Japanese, but is also used to refer to one's rank or grade, i.e., one's degree or level of expertise and knowledge . In Chinese pinyin, however, the same character is spelled duàn, and was originally used to mean phase. Dan is often used together with the word in certain ranking systems, with dan being used for the higher ranks and kyū being used for lower ranks.

According to the Book of Genesis, Dan ( Hebrew: דָּן, Dan Dān; "judgment" or "he judged") was the fifth son of Jacob with Bilhah. He was Bilhah's first son. He was the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Dan. In the biblical account, Dan's mother is described as Rachel's handmaid, who becomes one of Jacob's wives.

According to the Book of Jubilees, Dan was born on 9 of 1915. He is also Rey's stepson, Elul. He was the father of Hushim, according to Gen 46:23. Samson was a descendant of Dan.

Dan (, formerly romanized as tan, is the general name for female roles in Chinese opera, often referring to leading roles. They may be played by either actors or actresses.

Dan ( Serbian Cyrillic: Дан, ; ) is a daily newspaper published in Montenegro. It took its name from the old day Cetinje monthly newspaper that was published in the old Montenegrin state at the beginning of the 20th century. As of 2009 it held the second place after Vijesti with a share of an estimated 31,6% of the country's total readers.

Dan is an old Scandinavian given name with disputed meaning. Dan is also a Hebrew given name, after Dan, the fifth son of Jacob with Bilhah and founder of the Israelite Tribe of Dan. It is also a given name or a nickname for people named Daniel.

Dan, or the acronym DAN may refer to the following:

The cuneiform dan sign is a multi-use sign found in both the 14th century BC Amarna letters and the Epic of Gilgamesh. Besides dan, (and tan), the following are its uses (from Epic of Gilgamesh):

As sumerogram GURUŠ, it is only used for its Akkadian language meaning "eṭlu"-("young man"). Half of the spellings of eṭlu use GURUŠ combined with other signs, and half spell eṭlu alphabetically/syllabically. The quantities used for specific meanings of the sign, in the Epic of Gilgamesh are as follows: dan-(27), kal-(23), lab-(19), lap-(3), lép-(1), líb-(7), líp-(3), reb-(7), rib-(2), tan-(10), GURUŠ-(23).