den
/ˈdɛn/ · noun
Meaning
- A small cavern or hollow place in the side of a hill, or among rocks; especially, a cave used by a wild animal for shelter or concealment.
- A squalid or wretched place; a haunt.
- A comfortable room not used for formal entertaining.
- Synonym of fort (“structure improvised from furniture, etc. for playing games.”).
- A narrow glen; a ravine; a dell.
- A group of Cub Scouts of the same age who work on projects together.
- To ensconce or hide oneself in (or as in) a den.
- Of an animal, to use as a den; to take up residence in.
- Abbreviation of denier (a unit of weight).
- Alternative form of dene.
- Pronunciation spelling of then, representing AAVE, Bermuda English.
- A diminutive of the male given name Dennis.
- Abbreviation of Denver.
Etymology / origin
From Middle English den, from Old English denn (“den, lair (of a beast), cave; a swine-pasture, a woodland pasture for swine”), from Proto-West Germanic *dani (“threshing-floor, barn-floor”). Cognate with Scots den (“den, lair”), Middle Dutch denne (“burrow, den, cave, attic”), Dutch den (“ship's deck, threshing-floor, mountain floor”), Middle Low German denne, danne (“threshing-floor, small dale”), German Tenne (“threshing-floor, barn for threshing”).
- Tenne(German)→
- denne(gml)→
- den(Dutch)→
- denne(dum)→
- den(sco)→
- *dani(gmw-pro)→
- denn(Old English)→
- den(Middle English)→
- den (English)
- Relations: inh, inh, inh, cog, cog, cog, cog, cog
Related words
Descendant words
- Tenne(German) (cog)
Sources
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