hovel

Meaning

Noun

1. An open shed for sheltering cattle, or protecting produce, etc., from the weather.
2. (derogatory) A poor cottage; a small, mean house; a hut.
3. In the manufacture of porcelain, a large, conical brick structure around which the firing kilns are grouped.
4. (Midwestern-US, archaic, slang) A straitjacket.

Verb

1. (transitive) To put in a hovel; to shelter.
2. (transitive) To construct a chimney so as to prevent smoking, by making two of the more exposed walls higher than the others, or making an opening on one side near the top.

Synonyms

hut

🛖

shack

shanty

shed

cottage

thatched cottage

hutch

my humble cottage

home

🏠

dump

house

🏠

kennel

outhouse

pigpen

poorhouse

ramshackle hut

shebang

shelter

slum

small

small house

small room

sty

jeryhouse

mean dwelling

rat-trap

dilapidated house

miserable shack

aperture

blighted house

bungalow

byre

cabin

cell

cot

crib

den

doghouse

Translations

taudis

Hütte

🛖

chabola

stamberga

casupola

masure

cabaña

tugurio

krot

baracca

🛖

kot

👎

catapecchia

cabane

capanna

🛖

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈhɒvəl/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: hovel

Cognate with Middle High German: hobel

Cognate with Dutch: hof

Cognate with German: Hof

Cognate with Icelandic: hof

In summary

From Middle English hovel, hovil, hovylle, diminutive of *hove, *hof (“structure, building, house”), from Old English hof (“an enclosure, court, dwelling, house”), from Proto-West Germanic *hof, from Proto-Germanic *hufą (“hill, farm”), from Proto-Indo-European *kewp- (“arch, bend, buckle”), equivalent to howf + -el. Compare Middle High German hobel (“cover, lid, covered wagon”).
Cognate with Dutch hof (“garden, court”), German Hof (“yard, garden, court, palace”), Icelandic hof (“temple, hall”). Related to hove and hover.