midden
noun/ˈmɪdən/
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.
1
A dung heap.
2
A refuse heap usually near a dwelling.
- 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:
- 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:
3
Archaeology, History, Human sciences, Sciences 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.
- Derived terms
- kitchen midden, megamidden, midden-hill, midden-pant, middenstead, midgie, muckmidden, spiritual midden