dungeon

(dŭnˈjən)

noun

1. A dark, often underground chamber or cell used to confine prisoners.
2. A donjon.

Word History: The word dungeon may have gone down in the world quite literally, if one etymology of the word is correct. Dungeon may go back to a Medieval Latin word, domniō, meaning “the lord's tower,” which came from Latin dominus, “master.” In Middle English, in which our word is first recorded in a work composed around the beginning of the 14th century, it meant “a fortress, castle” and “the keep of a castle,” as well as “a prison cell underneath the keep of the castle.” Dungeon can still mean “keep,” although the usual spelling for this sense is donjon, but the meaning most usually associated with it is certainly not elevated. It is also possible that dungeon goes back to a Germanic word related to our word dung. This assumed Germanic word would have meant “an underground house constructed of dung.” If this etymology is correct, the word dungeon has ended up where it began.