dungeon
English
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English dungeon, dungeoun, dongoun, dungoun, dungun (“a castle keep" also, "a prison cell below the castle; a dungeon; pit; abyss”).
The Middle English word is apparently a merger of (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French donjon (“castle keep”) and (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old English dung (“a subterranean chamber; a prison; dungeon”), which supplied the current sense of the word. Old French donjon may itself be a conflation of (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Vulgar Latin *domnione (from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Late Latin *dominiōnem, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin dominium (“lordship; ownership”)) and (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Frankish *dungjo (“prison, dungeon, underground cellar”). Compare Middle English dung, dunge, dong, donge (“pit of hell; abyss”)
Both the Frankish and Old English words derive from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Germanic *dungijǭ (“an enclosed space; a vault; bower; treasury”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Indo-European *dʰengʰ- (“to cover”), and are related to Old Saxon dung (“underground cellar”), Middle Dutch donc (“underground basement”), Old High German tung (“underground cellar; an underground chamber or apartment for overwintering”) (whence German Tunk (“manure or soil covered basement, underground weaving workshop”)), Old Norse dyngja (“a detached apartment, a lady's bower”); whence Icelandic dyngja (“chamber”)). See also dung, dingle.
The game term has been popularized by Dungeons & Dragons.
Pronunciation
Noun
dungeon (plural dungeons)
- An underground prison or vault, typically built underneath a castle.
- (Can we date this quote by Macaulay and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Year after year he lay patiently in a dungeon.
- (Can we date this quote by Macaulay and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- (obsolete) The main tower of a motte or castle; a keep or donjon.
- (obsolete) A shrewd person.
- (games) An area inhabited by enemies, containing story objectives, treasure and bosses.
- (BDSM) A room dedicated to sadomasochistic sexual activity.
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Translations
|
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Verb
dungeon (third-person singular simple present dungeons, present participle dungeoning, simple past and past participle dungeoned)
- (transitive) To imprison in a dungeon.
- 1830, William Cobbett, History of the Regency and Reign of King George the Fourth:
- Of every act of severity, of every bold violation of the constitution, of every bill for dungeoning and gagging the people, of every tax, of every loan, of all that set frugality at defiance, and that mocked at mercy, these men had been either the authors or the most strenuous supporters […]
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Vulgar Latin
- English terms derived from Late Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Frankish
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- Requests for date/Macaulay
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:Games
- en:BDSM
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with quotations
- en:Prison
- en:Rooms