dell

See also: Dell, Dëll, and dell'

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: dĕl, IPA^(key): /dɛl/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛl

Etymology 1

From Middle English delle, del, from Old English dell (“small dale”), from Proto-West Germanic *dalljā, from Proto-Germanic *daljō (“a hollow”), related to *dalą (“valley, dale”).

Noun

dell (plural dells)

1. A valley, especially in the form of a natural hollow, small and deep.
   • 1794, William Blake, The Little Girl Found, lines 49-50

     To this day they dwell

     In a lonely dell.

   • 1722, Thomas Tickell, Kensington Gardens:

     In dells and dales, conceal'd from human sight.

Synonyms

• dale
• dingle
• vale
• valley
• See also Thesaurus:valley

Translations

valley — see valley

Etymology 2

Origin obscure. Originally thieves' cant. Compare Dutch del (“trollop, floozie”). This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Noun

dell (plural dells)

1. (obsolete) A young woman; a wench.
   • 1621 August 13 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Ben Jonson, “The Masque of the Gypsies”, in Q. Horatius Flaccus: His Art of Poetry. […], London: […] J[ohn] Okes, for John Benson […], published 1640, →OCLC:

     Sweet doxies and dells

Derived terms

• arch dell
• wapping dell

Albanian

Etymology

From Proto-Albanian *daislā, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰiH-slo (compare Latin fīlum, Lithuanian gýsla, Serbo-Croatian žȉla).

Noun

dell m (plural dej, definite delli, definite plural dejtë)

1. (anatomy) tendon
2. sinew

Declension

Declension of dell

	indefinite		definite
	singular	plural	singular	plural
nominative	dell	dej	delli	dejtë
accusative			dellin
dative	delli	dejve	dellit	dejvet
ablative		dejsh

Maltese

Root
d-l-l
2 terms

Etymology

From Arabic ظِلّ‎ (ẓill).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɛll/

Noun

dell m (plural dellijiet or dliel)

1. shade, shadow

Manx

Verb

dell (verbal noun dellal)

1. to negotiate, deal, trade, traffic

Mutation

Manx mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
dell	ghell	nell
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Middle English

Noun

dell

1. Alternative form of delle

Yola

Preposition

dell

1. Alternative form of del
   • 1867, OBSERVATIONS BY THE EDITOR:

     dell, for till;

     ——————

References

• Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, page 17