hut

Definition

A small, simple one-storey dwelling or shelter, often with just one room, and generally built of readily available local materials.

Etymology

From Middle English *hutte, hotte, from both Old English hōd and Old English hȳdan (“to hide”) and influenced by Anglo-Norman hute or hutte, from Middle French hutte, from Old French hute (“hut”), hute (“cottage”), from Old High German hutta (“hut, cottage”), from Proto-Germanic *hudjǭ, *hudjō (“hut”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewt- (“to deck; cover; covering; skin”). Cognate with German Hütte (“hut”), Dutch hut (“hut”), West Frisian hutte (“hut”), Saterland Frisian Hutte (“hut”), Danish hytte (“hut”), Norwegian Bokmål hytte (“hut”), Swedish hydda (“hut”). Related to hide.

Example Sentences

• "a thatched hut; a mud hut; a shepherd’s hut"
• "And in his Hut, when hee to rest doth take him, Hee sleeps, till Drums or deadlie Pellets wake him."
• "1751, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 186, 28 December, 1751, Volume 6, London: J. Payne and J. Bouquet, 1752, pp. 108-109, […] love, that extends his dominion wherever humanity can be found, perhaps exerts the same power in the Greenlander’s hut, as in the palaces of eastern monarchs."

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