This Aramaic noun refers to chaff, the light, dry husks and straw that are separated from grain during threshing and winnowing. In Daniel's vision of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, the great statue—representing successive kingdoms—is struck by a stone and breaks into pieces that become 'like chaff' from the summer threshing floors, blown away without a trace. The image emphasizes the utter disappearance and insignificance of these mighty empires before God's eternal kingdom. Related words in Aramaic and Arabic similarly refer to small particles or motes, underlining the sense of worthless fragments easily scattered by the wind.