dungeon

English

Etymology

From Middle English dungeon, dungeoun, dungun (“castle keep, prison cell below the castle, dungeon”), from Old French donjon (“castle keep”), from Frankish *dungjo (“prison, dungeon, underground cellar”), from Proto-Germanic *dungijō, *dungijǭ (“enclosed space, vault, bower, treasury”), from Proto-Germanic *dungaz, *dungō (“dung, manure”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰengʰ- (“to cover”). Cognate with Old English dung (“prison, dungeon”), Old Saxon dung (“underground cellar”), Old High German tung ("underground cellar"; > German Tunk (“manure or soil covered basement, underground weaving workshop”)), Old Norse dyngja ("a detached apartment, a lady's bower"; > Icelandic dyngja (“chamber”)). More at dung.

The game term has been popularized by Dungeons & Dragons.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdʌn.dʒən/

Noun

Wikipedia

dungeon (plural dungeons)

1. An underground prison or vault, typically built underneath a castle.
   • Macaulay

     Year after year he lay patiently in a dungeon.

2. (obsolete) The main tower of a motte or castle; a keep or donjon.
3. (games) An area inhabited by enemies, containing story objectives, treasure and bosses.

Hyponyms

• oubliette

Derived terms

• instance dungeon
• dungeon crawler

Translations

underground prison or vault

• Arabic: زِنْزانَة f (zinzāna)
• Bulgarian: донжон m (donžon)
• Catalan: calabós m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 地牢 (zh) (dìláo)

• Danish: fangekælder
• Dutch: kerker (nl) m
• Esperanto: (prison): karcero
• Finnish: vankityrmä, tyrmä (fi)
• French: oubliette (fr) f
• German: Verlies (de) n, Kerker (de) m
• Greek: μπουντρούμι (el) n (bountroúmi)
• Hebrew: צינוק (he) m (tzinok)
• Hungarian: kazamata (hu), földalatti börtön
• Icelandic: dýflissa (is) f

• Italian: prigione sotterranea f, segreta (it) f
• Japanese: 地下牢 (chikarō)
• Korean: 던전 (deonjeon)
• Latin: carcer m, robur (la) n
• Norwegian: fangekjeller m, fangehull n
• Old English: dung f, dimhūs n
• Persian: سیاهچال (fa) (siyâhčâl)
• Polish: loch (pl) m
• Portuguese: masmorra (pt) f, calabouço (pt) m
• Russian: темница (ru) f (temníca), склеп (ru) m (sklep)
• Serbian: донжон кула m
• Spanish: mazmorra (es) f, calabozo m
• Swedish: fängelsehåla c
• Turkish: zindan (tr)

the main tower of a motte or castle; a keep or donjon

• Catalan: masmorra f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 城堡主樓, 城堡主楼 (chéngbǎo zhǔlóu), 樓櫓, 楼橹 (zh) (lóulǔ)

• Esperanto: loĝejturo
• Finnish: keskustorni
• French: donjon (fr) m, cachot (fr) m

• German: Verlies (de) n
• Hungarian: vártorony
• Italian: torrione m
• Polish: donżon (pl) m
• Portuguese: torre de menagem (pt) f
• Russian: главная башня f (glávnaja bášnja), донжон (ru) m (donžón)
• Spanish: mazmorra (es) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Hindi: अंधकूपकारागार ? (a.ndhupakārāgār)
• Marathi: अंधारकोठी ? (a.ndhārakothī)

• Telugu: చీకటి గది (cIkaTi gadi), భూగృహము (te) (bhUgRhamu)