den - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Clipping of English Dene.

den

  1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Slavey. (macrolanguage)

From Middle English den, from Old English denn (“den, lair (of a beast), cave; a swine-pasture, a woodland pasture for swine”), from Proto-West Germanic *dani (“threshing-floor, barn-floor”). Cognate with Scots den (“den, lair”), Middle Dutch denne (“burrow, den, cave, attic”), Dutch den (“ship's deck, threshing-floor, mountain floor”), Middle Low German denne, danne (“threshing-floor, small dale”), German Tenne (“threshing-floor, barn for threshing”).

den (plural dens)

  1. A small cavern or hollow place in the side of a hill, or among rocks; especially, a cave used by a wild animal for shelter or concealment.
    Synonyms: lair; luster; Wiktionary appendix of animal terms, including their homes
    a den of robbers
    Daniel was put into the lions’ den.
  2. A squalid or wretched place; a haunt.
    a den of vice
    an opium den; a gambling den
  3. A comfortable room not used for formal entertaining.
    Hypernyms: room < space, place, site, location
    Coordinate terms: living room, living-room, lounge (esp. UK), loungeroom, lounge room (esp. Australia), parlour, parlor, sitting room, sitter, bedsit, front room, drawing room, zitkamer
    Near-synonyms: family room, sunroom, Florida room, Arizona room, rec room, playroom
  4. Synonym of fort (“structure improvised from furniture, etc. for playing games.”).
    Our little girls love using bedsheets and other stuff around the house to make dens in the living room and pretending they're on adventures.
  5. (UK, Scotland, obsolete) A narrow glen; a ravine; a dell.
    • 1806, Sir William Forbes, An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, LL.D., including many of his Original Letters:
      I have made several visits of late to the Den of Rubislaw
  6. A group of Cub Scouts of the same age who work on projects together.

home of certain animals

squalid or wretched place

living room of a house

den (third-person singular simple present dens, present participle denning, simple past and past participle denned)

  1. (reflexive) To ensconce or hide oneself in (or as in) a den.
  2. (intransitive, zoology) Of an animal, to use as a den; to take up residence in.
    • 2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 203:
      Although present in virtually all habitats, it preferred to den in caves, so its distribution, especially in cold, northern areas, may have been limited to limestone and other rocky regions where caves form.
    • 2023 August 30, Patrick Greenfield, “Why it may be time to stop using the polar bear as a symbol of the climate crisis”, in The Guardian‎[3], →ISSN:
      “Denning” – behaviour around making dens – has changed and bears are swimming long distances, but, says Aars, there is still enough sea ice in the spring for the bears to hunt successfully.

From Old French denier, from Latin denarius.

den

  1. Abbreviation of denier (a unit of weight).

den (plural dens)

  1. (Northumbria, chiefly in place names) Alternative form of dene.

den (not comparable)

  1. Pronunciation spelling of then, representing AAVE, Bermuda English.

From Dutch den.

den (plural denne)

  1. pine (tree)

From Proto-Athabaskan *dəŋ. Cognate with Lower Tanana den.

den

  1. to know (a skill)
Aspect Imperfective Perfective Future Optative
Neuter den diinʼ diił diinʼ
Neuter negative dene diinʼe diinʼe ?
Transitional-negative — diide diighe —
Reversitative diix diinʼ diix diix
Customary diix diix diix diix

den

  1. (Twi) hard
    nsa yɛ den ― the hand is hard[2]

(Nouns)

(Adverbs)

(Adjectives)

  1. ^ Kotey, Paul A. (1998), Twi-English/English-Twi Dictionary‎[1], New York: Hippocrene Books, →ISBN
  2. ^ Dolphyne, Florence Abena (1996), A Comprehensive Course in Twi (Asante) for the Non-Twi Learner‎[2], Accra, Ghana: Ghana Universities Press, →ISBN, page 123

den

  1. child
  2. fruit

(Sense 1)

den (intransitive)

  1. to bear fruit

From Proto-Brythonic *dün, from Proto-Celtic *gdonyos (“human, person”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰéǵʰom-yo- (“earthling, human”), a derivation of *dʰéǵʰōm (“earth”).

den m (plural tud or denion or dened)

  1. human being
  2. person, man
  3. husband

den

  1. inflection of dar:
    1. third-person plural present subjunctive
    2. third-person plural imperative

Cognate with the Mongsen Ao comitative marker /tʰən/.

den

  1. with (in a comitative sense)

den

  1. inflection of dèar:
    1. accusative singular masculine
    2. dative plural

den

  1. inflection of dèar:
    1. accusative singular masculine
    2. dative plural

From Old Cornish den, from Proto-Brythonic *dün, from Proto-Celtic *gdonyos (“human, person”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰéǵʰom-yo- (“earthling, human”), a derivation of *dʰéǵʰōm (“earth”).

den m (plural tus)

  1. man
  2. person

Inherited from Old Czech den, from Proto-Slavic *dьnь (“day”).

den m inan or (archaic or literary) m anim (relational adjective denní)

  1. day (24 hours, usually from midnight to midnight)
    jednoho dne ― one day, someday
    po několika dnech ― after a few days
    za pár dní ― in a couple of days
    Jednoho dne tě chytí. ― They're gonna catch you one day.
  2. daytime (time between sunrise and sunset)
  3. (astronomy) day (rotational period of a body orbiting a star)
    Den na Merkuru trvá téměř 59 pozemských dní. ― A day on Mercury lasts almost 59 terrestrial days.

when animate:

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

den

  1. genitive plural of dno

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

den

  1. genitive plural of dna

From Old Norse þann, the accusative form of sá, from Proto-Germanic *sa (“that”), from Proto-Indo-European *só (“this, that”).

den c (neuter det, plural de)

  1. (definite) the (used before an adjective preceding a noun)
    bilen - the car; den røde bil - the red car

den c (neuter det, plural de)

  1. (demonstrative) that, the
  2. (personal) it

From Middle Dutch dan, danne, denne (“pine tree”), from Old Dutch *danna, from Proto-West Germanic *dannā (“pine tree”). Related to German Tanne.

den m (plural dennen, diminutive dennetje n)

  1. pine, pine tree
    Synonyms: dennenboom, pijnboom
    Hypernym: naaldboom

From Middle Dutch den.

den

  1. (archaic) dative masculine/neuter/plural of de (“the”)
    Nederland in den goeden ouden tijd. ― The Netherlands in the good old days.
    De baron gaf den koetsier een wenk en het rijtuig rolde heen. ― The baron gave the coachman a sign and the carriage rode away. (from the story Gaston von Frankrijk by J.J.A. Goeverneur)
    In den beginne schiep God den hemel en de aarde. ― In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
  2. (archaic) accusative masculine singular of de
    In den beginne schiep God den hemel en de aarde. ― In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
  3. (Southern, dialectal) masculine singular of de

den (definite)

  1. inflection of der (“the”):
    1. accusative masculine singular
    2. dative plural

den

  1. that; whom; accusative masculine singular of der

den

  1. contraction of de +‎ an
    Bhris mé den chrann é. ― I broke it off the tree.
    Fuair sé bás den ocras. ― He died of hunger.

This contraction is obligatory, i.e. *de an never appears uncontracted. It triggers lenition of a following consonant other than d, s, or t.

Irish preposition contractions

| | contracted with | copular forms | | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ | | base form | an (“the sg”) | na (“the pl”) | mo (“my”) | do (“your”) | a (“his, her, their; which (present)”) | ár (“our”) | ar (“which (past)”) | before a consonant | before a vowel | | present/future | past/conditional | | | | | | | | | | de (“from”) | den | de nadesna* | de modem* | de doded*, det* | dá | dár | dar | darb | darbh | | do (“to, for”) | don | do nadosna* | do modom* | do dodod*, dot* | dá | dár | dar | darb | darbh | | faoi (“under, about”) | faoin | faoi na | faoi mo | faoi do | faoina | faoinár | faoinar | faoinarb | faoinarbh | | i (“in”) | sa, san | sna | i moim* | i doid*, it* | ina | inár | inar | inarb | inarbh | | le (“with”) | leis an | leis na | le molem* | le doled*, let* | lena | lenár | lenar | lenarb | lenarbh | | ó (“from, since”) | ón | ó naósna* | ó moóm* | ó doód*, ót* | óna | ónár | ónar | ónarb | ónarbh | | trí (“through”) | tríd an | trí na | trí mo | trí do | trína | trínár | trínar | trínarb | trínarbh |

*dialectal

den

  1. Rōmaji transcription of でん

From Proto-Athabaskan *dəŋ.

den

  1. to know (a skill)
Aspect Imperfective Perfective Future Optative
Neuter denh din' din' —
Potentialitive dinh — — —
Reversitative dix din' dix dix

den m

  1. unstressed form of deen

den (Jawi spelling دين)

  1. I, me, my

Malay personal pronouns

| | Singular | Plural | | | ----------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | 1st person | saya1 aku3 | kita4 kami2 & 5 kita orang3 & 5 | | 2nd person | awak1 anda2 awda8 (eng)kau3 kamu3 | (2nd person) + semua6 kalian2 (eng)kau orang3 | | 3rd person | dia ia beliau7 -nya2 | mereka2 dia orang3 |

1 Polite.
2 Formal.
3 Informal.
4 Includes the listener (inclusive).
5 Excludes the listener (exclusive).
6 Formality depends on the second person pronoun used.
7 Honorific.
8 Formal (Brunei).

Notes:

See each entry for more information.

den

  1. nonstandard spelling of dēn
  2. nonstandard spelling of dèn

den

  1. inflection of die:
    1. masculine accusative/dative singular
    2. neuter dative singular
    3. dative plural

From Old English denn, from Proto-West Germanic *dani. Forms with a final vowel are probably generalised datives.

den (plural dennes)

  1. A cave or cavern.
  2. A chamber of residence:
    1. A den (animal lair)
      • c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [_et al._], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎[4], published c. 1410, Matheu 8:20, folio 3, verso, column 1; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:
        and iheſus ſeide to him / foxis han dennes ⁊ bꝛiddis of heuene han neeſtis.· but mannes ſone haþ not where he ſchal reſte his heed
        But Jesus said to him, "Foxes have dens and the birds up above have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere he can rest his head."
    2. A refuge; a shelter.
  3. A catacomb (subterranean grave)
  4. (anatomy) A cavity; a division.

From Anglo-Norman deen and continental Old French deien, from Latin decānus.

den (plural denes)

  1. A dean (ecclesiastical official)
  2. A leader of a group of ten.
  3. An officer of a guild.
  4. (rare, by extension) A leader of a group.

den

  1. alternative form of dene

den

  1. alternative form of deyne

den

  1. (West Midland) alternative form of dyne

den

  1. I, me, my; first person singular (informal use; in dialogue with the same age person or with those who are younger)

den

  1. behavior

Possessive forms of den (tight inalienable possession, -i stem)

singularpossessor first person dinihoa
second person dinimwen
third person dinin
dualpossessors first person inclusive dinisa
first person exclusive dinima
second person dinimwa
third person dinira
pluralpossessors first person inclusive dinisai
first person exclusive dinimai
second person dinimwai
third person dinirai
remote pluralpossessors first person inclusive dinihs
first person exclusive dinimi
second person dinimwi
third person dinihr
construct form dinin

From English then.

den

  1. then
    • 2025 April 23, Orla Guerin, “More dan 150 pipo injure as earthquakes shake buildings for Turkey Istanbul”, in BBC News Pidgin‎[6]:
      For now, no immediate reports of casualties or wider damage, but Istanbul officials say dem dey check buildings, den warn pipo to stay clear of potentially-damaged sites.
      For now, there are no immediate reports of casualties or wider damage, but Istanbul officials say they are checking buildings, then warning people to stay clear of potentially damaged sites.

den (genitive dens)

  1. it; third person singular, masculine/feminine gender. Nominative, accusative or dative.

den m or f

  1. (demonstrative pronoun) that

den m or f

  1. The; only used if there is an adjective in front of the noun.
    bilen: the car → den røde bilen: the red car

From Old Norse þann, þenn, masculine accusative singular of sá, from Proto-Germanic *sa, from Proto-Indo-European *só.

den m or f (neuter singular det, plural dei)

  1. (demonstrative determiner) that
    Eg vil ha den bilen.
    I want that car.

den m or f (neuter singular det, plural dei)

  1. the; only used if there is an adjective or numeral to the noun
    Han køyrde den raude bilen.
    He drove the red car.

Norwegian Nynorsk demonstrative pronouns

singular masculine feminine neuter
nominative-accusative den, denn / dann1 det, dat1
dative3 deim di
plural all genders
nominative dei
accusative dei, deim2
dative3 deim
genitive deira, _deires_3

1 Landsmål
2 Unofficial today
3 Rare or dialectal
4 Obsolete.

den

  1. (demonstrative pronoun) that one
    Eg vil ha den.
    I want that one.

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *dьnь.

den m inan (diminutive dnek)

  1. day; daytime (period between sunrise and sundown)
  2. day (24 hour period)
  3. (often in the plural) day (unspecified period, particularly in the past)
  4. (in the plural) days (life)
  5. (religion) day; holiday
  6. (religion) day; doomsday

From Portuguese dentro and Spanish dentro and Kabuverdianu dentu.

den

  1. in
  2. inside
  3. below

Pennsylvania German

[edit]

Compare German den.

den m (definite)

  1. accusative masculine singular of der (“the”)

den n

  1. genitive plural of dno

Inherited from Proto-Yeniseian *den (“female nipple”).[1]

den (plural unknown)

  1. milk

  2. ^ Vajda, Edward; Werner, Heinrich (2022), Comparative-Historical Yeniseian Dictionary (Languages of the World/Dictionaries; 79, 80), Muenchen: LINCOM GmbH, →ISBN, page 199

Inherited from Norwegian Nynorsk den or its northern dialectal palatalized form.

Unknown. Possible examples:

The attested Cyrillic spelling денъ indicates no palatalization. The letter "е" in non-Russian words may have two different ways of pronunciation (as /je/ or /e/). The variant closest to Norwegian pronunciation would be /e/:

den

  1. this, that

The pronoun has no conjugated forms, in difference from Norwegian, which conjugates this pronoun after gender and number (e. g. det), which are absent in Russenorsk.

den

  1. inflection of dar:
    1. third-person plural present subjunctive
    2. third-person plural imperative

From English them.

den

  1. they
  2. them

den

  1. their (possessive pronoun)

den

  1. the (plural definite article)

From Old Swedish þæn, accusative of sā(r), from Old Norse sá, from Proto-Germanic *sa, from Proto-Indo-European *só.

den c

  1. it (for common gender nouns)
    Jag ser Nisses bil. Den är röd.
    I see Nisse's car. It is red.
    Jag har tappat bort min nyckel. Har du sett den?
    I have lost my key. Have you seen it?
    Skalbaggen är mycket hungrig. Mata den varje timme.
    The beetle is very hungry. Feed it every hour.
    Mata'ren varje timme [Common unstressed pronunciation variant – see IPA. /rɛnː/ is especially common in some dialects.]
    Feed it every hour
    Ge'ren till Nisse [Common unstressed pronunciation variant]
    Give it to Nisse
    Seruren? ["Ser du den?" – common unstressed pronunciation variant]
    Do you see it?
  2. that (for common gender nouns)
    Den bilen är röd, men bilen där borta är grön
    That car is red, but the car over there is green
    1. the one, that one (for common gender nouns)
      Den stora bilen – den som Margit äger – är gul
      The big car – the one that Margit owns – is yellow
      – Vilken glass tog du? – Jag tog den med marshmallows.
      – Which ice cream did you have [take]? – I had [took] the one with marshmallows.
      – Vilken bil tycker du är finast? – Den (där)! *Pekar*
      – Which car do you think is the prettiest? – That one (there)! *Points* ["Där" (there) is optional, and could also be "här" (here) for example, for a nearby object, like in English]
  3. he, she, whoever, "the one"
    Den som gräver en grop åt andra faller ofta själv däri
    He who digs a pit for others often falls himself therein (proverb based on the Bible – idiomatically old-fashioned language in Swedish as well)

Swedish personal pronouns

Number Person nominative oblique possessive
common neuter plural
singular first — jag mig, mej3 min mitt mina
second — du dig, dej3 din ditt dina
third masculine (person) han honom, han2, en5 hans
feminine (person) hon henne, na5 hennes
gender-neutral (person)1 hen hen, henom7 hens
common (noun) den den dess
neuter (noun) det det dess
indefinite man or en4 en ens
reflexive — sig, sej3 sin sitt sina
plural first — vi oss vår, våran2 vårt, vårat2 våra
second — ni er er, eran2, ers6 ert, erat2 era
archaic I eder eder, eders6 edert edra
third — de, dom3 dem, dom3 deras
reflexive — sig, sej3 sin sitt sina

1Neologism. Usage has increased since 2010, though it remains limited.

2Informal

4Dialectal, also used lately as an alternative to man, to avoid association to the male gender.

5Informal, somewhat dialectal

6Formal address

den c (definite)

  1. the (when an adjective is used with a common gender noun in the definite – det is used for neuter gender nouns, and de for plural nouns, regardless of gender)
    en bil ― a car
    bilen ― the car
    en röd bil ― a red car
    den röda bilen ― the red car
    röda bilar ― red cars (for comparison – note that "röd" has the same inflection in the definite and plural)
    bilen den röda ― the red car [rare, poetic – intuitively, "the car, the red one" / "the car the red"]
    • 1971, Evert Taube, “Änglamark”, in Äppelkriget:
      Kalla den Änglamarken eller Himlajorden om du vill. Jorden vi ärvde och lunden den gröna.
      Call it the Angel Ground or the Heaven Earth if you like. The Earth we inherited and the green grove
      (literally, “the grove the green”)
    1. the ... one (when the noun is implied, which is an idiomatic construction)
      – Vilken tröja vill du ha? – Den blå.
      – Which shirt do you want? – The blue one.
      – Vilken glass vill du ha? – Den största.
      – Which ice cream do you want? – The biggest (one).

"The [adjective] [noun]" is expressed as "den/det/de (common gender, neuter gender, and plural, respectively) [adjective inflected for definite] [noun inflected for definite]." For example, "smaskig" (yummy) and "hamburgare" (hamburger – common gender) turns into "den smaskiga hamburgaren" (the yummy-definite hamburger-definite), "röd" (red) and "hus" (house – neuter gender) turns into "det röda huset" (the red-definite house-definite), and "snabb" (fast) and "bilar" (cars) turns into "de snabba bilarna" (the fast-definite cars-definite). "Den/det/de" is not optional, except often being left out in proper nouns and other lexicalized noun phrases with an adjective that are in the definite (giving "smaskiga hamburgaren" something of a "pub name" feel) – see de for examples.

The definite form of an adjective is identical to the plural form except optionally having "-e" instead of "-a" in the singular for nouns whose natural gender is masculine. For example, "lång" (tall) and "man" (man) turns into either "den långe mannen" or "den långa mannen," while "lång" (tall) and "kvinna" (woman) can only be expressed as "den långa kvinnan." Present participles – like in "den sjungande kvinnan" (the singing woman) and "de simmande fiskarna" (the swimming fishes) – do not inflect, and stay the same in indefinite, definite, singular, and plural noun phrases.

The construction above is called "double definiteness," since it can be considered redundant. It also occurs in Norwegian and Faroese, but not in Danish, where "the red house" is "det røde hus."

Compare Navajo dį́į́ʼ, Ahtna dencʼih.

den

  1. four

From Mandarin 電／电 (diàn).

den (1957–1982 spelling **den)

  1. electricity