[Ads-l] bazam - wooden cantilever bridge - 2004

[Barretts Mail]

According to the Urban Dictionary (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bazam <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bazam>), bazam is an exclamation of delight, a word not in the online Oxford Dictionaries, Wikipedia or Wiktionary. All of them, however, miss the meaning of “wooden cantilever bridge” as found in Bhutan.

According to "Bhutanese Bazams or Wooden Cantilever Bridges” (http://bit.ly/2gZAT1n), which provides a description of how they are built, a 52-meter bazam was built in 1684 and the longest to date in Bhutan is 56 meters.

1. 2004 (Google-dated)
Bhutan: Land of Spirituality and Modernization : Role of Water in Daily Life
http://bit.ly/2fWvczt <http://bit.ly/2fWvczt>

… suspension bridges, the main advantage of _bazam_ bridges …
which replaced the old _bazam_ bridge—is an exemplary case in this regard.

2. 2015
"Bazam washed away in a flashflood” on Kuensel
http://bit.ly/2gL7xDc <http://bit.ly/2gL7xDc>

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However, the villagers would not remain cut off as they have a suspension bridge over the river. The bazam was constructed in 2011 for the two villages and also to explore eco-tourism in the gewog.
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Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org