siegħ

[Maltese]

Plural, sigħan. In Maltese the word also means “sixth”; the unit is a sixth of a tomna. In Malta , ? – 20^th century, two units:

1

A unit of dry capacity, about 3.03 liters (about 2.75 U.S. dry quarts). Minor use by old people in the early 21st century.

One old farmer I see quite often (actually not that old, he's younger than my father!) [the author’s father was 80 at the time of writing - editor] still uses those terms of capacity measurement – and only those units. His main activity is pig breeding and he talks of giving a particular sow “one siegh soya flour with half tomna barley meal”.²

2

A seed measure of land area, approximately 187.354 square meters (approximately 224.1 square yards). It was reported in official use in the mid-20^th century.¹

1. United Nations, 1966.

2. Sammy Vella, correspondence dated 8 June 2005.