midden
See also: midden-
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English midding, myddyng, from Old Danish mykdyngja, (a compound of Old Norse myk, myki (“muck, manure”) and dyngja (“dung, dungpile”)), whence also Danish møgdynge and mødding, Norwegian mødding, dialectal Swedish mödding.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
midden (plural middens)
- A dungheap.
- A refuse heap usually near a dwelling.
- 1952, Norman Lewis, Golden Earth:
- Untouched by the decaying middens in which they live, they emerge into the sunshine immaculate and serene. The Burmese must be the best-dressed people in the world.
- 1979, V. S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River:
- Strange rubbish, not the tins and paper and boxes and other containers you would expect in a town, but a finer kind of waste […] that made the middens look like grey-black mounds of sifted earth.
- (archaeology) An accumulation, deposit, or soil derived from occupation debris, rubbish, or other by-products of human activity, such as bone, shell, ash, or decayed organic materials; or a pile or mound of such materials, often prehistoric.
- (zoology) A shelter made of vegetation and other materials by packrats.
- (zoology) An accumulation of dried urine and fecal deposits made by hyraxes.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
dungheap
|
refuse heap
archeology: prehistoric pile of bones and shells
Anagrams edit
Dutch edit
Etymology edit
From Middle Dutch midden, from Old Dutch *middi, from Proto-West Germanic *midi, from Proto-Germanic *midjaz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *medʰyo-.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
midden n (plural middens)
- middle, centre
- in het midden van het dorp staat de kerk ― in the middle of the village stands the church
Adverb edit
midden
- in the middle
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Descendants edit
Luxembourgish edit
Adjective edit
midden
West Frisian edit
Etymology edit
From Old Frisian midde, from Proto-West Germanic *midi.
Noun edit
midden c or n (no plural)
- middle (part between beginning and end)
Further reading edit
- “midden (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011