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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

midden en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • /ˈmɪdən/
  • (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

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.

Meanings

  1. A dung heap.
  2. A refuse heap usually near a dwelling.
    • 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. 1979, V. S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River:
    • 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. 1952, Norman Lewis, Golden Earth:
  3. 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.
  4. A shelter made of vegetation and other materials by packrats.
  5. An accumulation of dried urine and fecal deposits made by hyraxes.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
middens Number=Plur lexicographic

Deriveds

kitchen midden · middenstead · muckmidden · midden-pant · midden-hill · spiritual midden · midgie · megamidden

Translations (15)

fi tunkio (archeology: prehistoric pile of bones and shells) · de Müllhaufen (refuse heap) · fi tunkio (refuse heap) · pt cascal (archeology: prehistoric pile of bones and shells) · uk купа сміття (refuse heap) · is eldhúshaugur (archeology: prehistoric pile of bones and shells) · ja 貝塚 (archeology: prehistoric pile of bones and shells) · ko 패총 (archeology: prehistoric pile of bones and shells) · de Müllgrube (refuse heap) · ga carnán bruscair (archeology: prehistoric pile of bones and shells) · es basural (refuse heap) · da køkkenmødding (archeology: prehistoric pile of bones and shells) · gl coañeira (refuse heap) · sh smetlište (refuse heap) · es conchero (archeology: prehistoric pile of bones and shells)