avania
UK/ˌavəˈniːə/
avania noun: a tax or fee imposed on foreigners under the Ottoman Empire, especially one considered to be irregular or extortionate.
Noun
avania (plural avanias)
- A tax or fee imposed on foreigners under the Ottoman Empire, especially one considered to be irregular or extortionate.
- The merchants are considered as more immediately under the protection of the Mohassil, and therefore not so subject to the Avanias made by the Bashaw.1794, Alex Russell, The Natural History of Aleppo, 2nd edition, page 330
- “Khoja,” said the pasha, slowly, removing the chibouque from his mouth, and looking towards the secretary; “write that Yacob the Jew shall, before sunset, pay an avania to the pasha of one hundred piastres, for selling dhourra within the walls of the city, without authority—now Hebrew, once more we...1846, Julia Pardoe, Miss Pardoe's Complete Works, page 55
avania meaning in Arabic
avania in Arabic
- fee imposed by Ottomans
- عَوَانِيَّة ʕawāniyya, عَوَانَة ʕawāna
Examples of avania in a sentence
- Ten years later, as they told their ambassador at Constantinople, Sir Thomas Bendysh, they were still loth to meddle in those ‘barbarous places’ because of the ever-present hazard of avanias.1935, Alfred C. Wood, A History of the Levant Company, page 63:
- The Europeans often felt that these practices went against the capitulations, and considered them extortions – which they called avanias.2000, Merlijn Olnon, ‘Towards Classifying Avanias’, Friend and Rivals in the East, page 162:
Forms of avania
| plural | avanias |
|---|
Origin of avania
Borrowed from Italian avania, from Byzantine Greek ἀβανία (abanía, cfr. modern Greek αβανιά (avaniá) “defamation, slander”), possibly from Arabic خَوَّان (ḵawwān, “unreliable, treacherous”).
Words that rhyme with avania
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- althea
- Anthea
- Caesarea
- hamartia
- Hosea
- Leah
- logorrhea
- maria
- panacea
- Sandia
- Theia
- trachea
- Zia
- Achaea
- Alethea
- carry the message to Garcia
- chia
- chorea
- diarrhea
- Hygieia
- mens rea
- pharmacopoeia
- pro-mia
- quesadilla
- ratafia
- sangria
- shea
- Shi'a
- tortilla
- urea
- Aeaea
- Apamea
- apatheia
- Aramea
- Arimathea
- cinquedea
- Corea
- deliver the message to Garcia
- dionaea
- dyspnea
- Euboea
- eupatheia
- Euryclea
- Fawzia
- gelateria
- glossopoeia
- gonorrhea
- Hialeah
Questions about avania
- What does avania mean?
- Avania means a tax or fee imposed on foreigners under the Ottoman Empire, especially one considered to be irregular or extortionate.
- What is avania in Arabic?
- Avania in Arabic is عَوَانِيَّة (ʕawāniyya), عَوَانَة (ʕawāna). See Avania meaning in Arabic.
- How do you use avania in a sentence?
- Ten years later, as they told their ambassador at Constantinople, Sir Thomas Bendysh, they were still loth to meddle in those ‘barbarous places’ because of the ever-present hazard of avanias.
- What part of speech is avania?
- Avania is a noun.
- How do you pronounce avania?
- Avania is pronounced /ˌavəˈniːə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of avania?
- The plural of avania is avanias.
Words near avania in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: avania (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “avania.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/avania. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.