dungeon

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

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

   Year after year he lay patiently in a dungeon.

2. 2
   verb

   To imprison in a dungeon.

   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 […].

3. 3
   noun

   a dark cell (usually underground) where prisoners can be confined

4. 4
   noun

   the main tower within the walls of a medieval castle or fortress

Simplified etymology

Dungeon appeared in the 14th century with two principal meanings: a castle’s great tower or keep and an underground prison cell. Its core meaning was “lord’s tower,” ultimately from Latin dominus, “lord” or “master”; the tower sense is now usually written donjon.

From Middle English dongeoun (“keep of a castle; dungeon; abyss, cave, den; whirlpool”), from Anglo-Norman donjun (“keep of a castle; keep used as a prison; dungeon”) and continental Old French donjon (“keep of a castle”), from Vulgar Latin *dominiōnem, seemingly derived from Latin dominus (“master, lord”) perhaps via some figurative sense like “dominant building”. Doublet of donjon. The sense of “prison (associated with a castle)”, first attested in Anglo-Norman (13th c.) and apparently never in continental Old French, likely developed in combination with Old English dung (“underground prison...

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External links

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