The Collaborative International Dictionary
Drachma \Drach"ma\, n.; pl. E. Drachmas, L. Drachm[ae]. [L., fr. Gr. ?. See Dram.]
A silver coin among the ancient Greeks, having a different value in different States and at different periods. The average value of the Attic drachma is computed to have been about 19 cents (U. S. currency, ca. 1913).
A gold and silver coin of modern Greece worth 19.3 cents.
Among the ancient Greeks, a weight of about 66.5 grains; among the modern Greeks, a weight equal to a gram. [1913 Webster] ||
Wiktionary
n. (plural of drachma English)
WordNet
See drachma
Usage examples of "drachmae".
The salary of a philosopher was ten thousand drachmae, between three and four hundred pounds a year.
The best sense seems to be, that the Praetorian guards received twelve hundred and fifty drachmae, (forty pounds a year,) (Dion, l.
The best sense seems to be, that the Praetorian guards received twelve hundred and fifty drachmae, (forty pounds a year,) (Dion, l.
Any who were not prepared to sail at once might, by paying down the sum of fifty Corinthian drachmae, have a share in the colony without leaving Corinth.
It was this, with Potidaea, that most exhausted her revenues- Potidaea being blockaded by a force of heavy infantry (each drawing two drachmae a day, one for himself and another for his servant), which amounted to three thousand at first, and was kept at this number down to the end of the siege.
As early as the sixth century we hear that Solon, the law-giver of Athens, provided a bounty of a hundred [159] drachmae ( Footnote: A drachma would be equal to about 9½d.
Archias was about to discharge the man with a caution not to get into trouble, he salving the wound which he had inflicted with half a dozen drachmae, when an unexpected difficulty arose.
When Manolis mentioned a sum of fifteen hundred drachmae his eyes lit up like lamps, and after he'd collected his fish, groceries, booze and other items for the taverna, then they were off.