Plural, sigħan. In Maltese the word also means “sixth”; the unit is a sixth of a tomna. In Malta
, ? – 20ᵗʰ century (United Nations 1966),
? – 20ᵗʰ century,
two units:
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”.¹
1. Sammy Vella, correspondence dated 8 June 2005.
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-20ᵗʰ century.¹
1. United Nations, 1966.
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Last revised: 8 June 2005.