dungeon
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English dongeoun (“the main tower and royal residence of a castle, fortress, stronghold; subterranean prison, dungeon, abyss; cave or den; whirlpool”), from Old French donjon (“main tower inside a fortress, castle residence”), from Vulgar Latin *dominiōnem, derived from Latin dominus (“master, lord”). Also with semantics from Middle English dung, dunge, dong, donge (“pit of hell, abyss”) or its etymon Old English dung (“a subterranean chamber; prison; dungeon”), from Proto-West Germanic *dung (“vault, cellar”). The shift in reference from a tower to an underground chamber used for imprisonment is apparently attested in Anglo-Norman (although not in the French of the continent).[1] An early manuscript (c1300) of the Middle English poem A disputacion bytwene þe bodi and þe soule contains the lines "Þe erþe hemsulf it lek aȝeyn, Anon þe donge it was fordit" which are replaced in the later Vernon manuscript (c1390) by "The eorthe closede hit self aȝeyn, And the dungoun was for-dit."[2]
The game term has been popularized by Dungeons & Dragons.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
dungeon (plural dungeons)
- An underground prison or vault, typically built underneath a castle.
- 1911, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Bunyan, John”, in 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica[2]:
- Year after year he lay patiently in a dungeon.
- The low area between two drumlins.
- (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[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Verb[edit]
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 […]
References[edit]
- ^ “dungeon”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
- ^ Bishop, Chris (2019) “Our own dark hearts: re-evaluating the medieval dungeon”, in Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association[1], volume 15
Middle English[edit]
Noun[edit]
dungeon
- Alternative form of dongeoun
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Vulgar Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:Games
- en:BDSM
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *dʰengʰ-
- en:Prison
- en:Rooms
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns