Meanings
dayan1
plural dayans · plural dayanim · alternative dayyan
- A rabbinic judge.
A medieval hymn composed by the Dayyan ("Judge") Daniel b. Yehudah of fourteenth-century Rome, recited in the daily morning Preliminary Service, and by some, at the close of the Arvit and Musaf services on Shabbat and festivals.
1996, Macy Nulman, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer, page 3751 more example
There is a famous story about Rabbi Yisrael Salanter who ate on the Bimah in Vilna at the end of the Yom Kippur morning service in 1848 during a cholera epidemic, together with two other Dayyanim, to persuade the congregation to eat during the epidemic.
2024, David Golinkin, “Does Jewish Law Require Yeshivah Students To Be Drafted At Age 18?”, in Responsa in a Moment, volume 4, page 66
Dayan2
Origin
dayan · noun
- Hebrewדיין
- Hebrewדיין
- Englishdayan
Borrowed from Hebrew דיין.
More words from Hebrew
Full word history & related roots →Dayan · proper noun
- Hebrewדַּיָּן“rabbinic judge”
- EnglishDayan
Jewish surname from Hebrew דַּיָּן (“rabbinic judge”).
More words from Hebrew
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
dayan. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dayan
“dayan.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dayan. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dayan,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dayan.
Source: dayan on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.