dyke

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an embankment built to hold back water; a ditch or channel

   The villagers raised the dyke before the floodwaters arrived.

Simplified etymology

Dyke is an Old English word with historically related senses of something dug out and something built up; ditch is a variant, and dig belongs to the same family. Related German and Dutch forms contributed the built-up sense, initially referring to a city wall or fortification. Its derogatory use for a lesbian, originally found as bulldyke and attested by the 1930s, has an uncertain origin.

A variant of 'dike', from Middle English 'dik', from Old English 'dīc' ('ditch, dike'), of Germanic origin; the same root gives 'ditch'.

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary