dell

Pronunciation

• /dɛl/^[1]

dell¹ small wooded valley

Etymology

The valley is inherited from Middle English delle, also dele,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English dell (“a deep hollow or vale”),^{[5][6][7][8][9]} from Proto-Germanic *daljō.^{[3][7][9][10]} It is cognate with Middle Dutch delle and Middle Low German delle (“valley”) (modern Dutch del), Middle High German telle (“ravine”) (German dialect Telle, modern German Delle (“dent, depression”)) and Old Frisian dele, and with a Gothic compound meaning a mountain slope.^{[6][7][3][11][4][12]} The Germanic noun is a derivative of the base of dale,^[7][2][6][3] which Barnhart traces to Proto-Indo-European *dʰel-;^[3][10] Weekley compares the pair to den and dean.^[13] Etymonline suggests that the Old English word may have been lost and then borrowed again in Middle English from the Dutch or Low German cognates.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A deep natural hollow or small vale, its sides usually covered with trees: about 1220, in the Bestiary.^[2] Barnhart finds it earlier in the place name Brixisdelle (1225) and as dele before 1250.^[3] The Old English word, "a pit, a dell, a valley", is rare in literary texts but common in place names.^[14][8]

Semantic evolution

From the early 16th century to the late 18th the word also meant a deep hole or pit,^[2][6] and Johnson (1755), who defined it as "a pit; a valley; a hole in the ground", marked it as obsolete, quoting Spenser and Milton's "Dingle, or bushy dell".^[15] In modern use it is a small secluded valley, usually wooded or grassy,^[4][16] a word of poetry such as Burns's "the lonely dells"; in Scotland, Northumberland and Yorkshire dialect it still meant a little dale or narrow valley.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1220 – a deep natural hollow with wooded sides.^[2]
• 1225 – in the place name Brixisdelle.^[3]
• before 1250 – dele.^[3]
• 1531 – a deep hole or pit (obsolete by 1783).^[2]
• 1755 – Johnson's definition, "a pit; a valley; a hole in the ground".^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small, secluded natural hollow or valley, usually wooded or covered with grass: They picnicked in a shady dell below the farm.^[16][4][2]
2. (obsolete) A deep hole or pit in the ground.^[4][2][6]

dell² young vagrant woman

Etymology

The young woman is a word of rogues' cant of uncertain origin.^[11][2][6] The OED suggests that it may be an extended use of the word for a valley, alluding to the vagina, or compares the female name Doll, a pet form of Dorothy (see doll).^[2] Green's Dictionary of Slang gives the same two suggestions, and notes Welsh del (“pert, smart”) and Scots dilp (“a trollop”).^[18] Merriam-Webster derives it from Dutch del, from Middle Dutch delle or dille, a gossip or frivolous girl, from dillen (“to gossip, prattle”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A young woman among vagrants: about 1535, in Copland's Hye way to the Spyttel House.^[18] The OED's first quotation is Thomas Harman's Caveat for Common Cursetors (1567),^[2][11] which explains it: "A Dell is a yonge wenche, able for generation, and not yet knowen or broken by the vpright man".^[18][11]

Semantic evolution

In Harman's account a dell became a doxy once the upright man, a leader of the beggars, had lain with her, and a wild dell was one born among vagrants.^[18][11] The word belonged to the cant of the 16th and 17th centuries,^[11] and appears in Dekker's Belman of London (1608) and Middleton and Dekker's Roaring Girl (1611).^[18] Merriam-Webster and the Shorter Oxford label it archaic slang.^[4][6]

Timeline

• c. 1535 – a young vagrant woman, in Copland.^[18]
• 1567 – Harman's definition in his Caveat.^[2][11]
• 1608 – in Dekker's Belman of London.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic slang) A young woman of the vagrant class, especially a girl who is still a virgin; a wench.^{[4][6][2][18]}

Related words

• dale
• delve

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
10. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Smith, A. H. (1956), English Place-Name Elements, 2 vols. (English Place-Name Society 25–26), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
15. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
18. ^ a b c d e f g h Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com