din

name

Etymology: Etymology tree German DINbor. English DIN Borrowed from German DIN.

1. The German Institute for Standardization.

noun

1. Alternative spelling of deen (“religion, faith, religiosity”).

verb

Etymology: From Middle English dynnen, from Old English dynnan, from Proto-Germanic *dunjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰwen- (“to make a noise”).

1. To make a din, to resound.

   “1820, William Wordsworth, “The Waggoner” Canto 2, in The Miscellaneous Poems of William Wordsworth, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, Volume 2, p. 21, For, spite of rumbling of the wheels, A welcome greeting he can hear;— It is a fiddle in its glee Dinning from the CHERRY TREE!”

   “My confused senses received a dull roar of pounding feet and dinning voices as the herald of victory.”

2. (of a place) To be filled with sound, to resound.

   “The room was dinning with the strains of an invisible orchestra and the vocal uproar […]”

3. To assail (a person, the ears) with loud noise.

   “1716, Joseph Addison, The Free-Holder: or Political Essays, London: D. Midwinter & J. Tonson, No. 8, 16 January, 1716, pp. 45-46, She ought in such Cases to exert the Authority of the Curtain Lecture; and if she finds him of a rebellious Disposition, to tame him, as they do Birds of Prey, by dinning him in the Ears all Night long.”

   “Oh ye! whose ears are dinn’d with uproar rude, Or fed too much with cloying melody,— Sit ye near some old cavern’s mouth, and brood Until ye start, as if the sea-nymphs quired!”

4. To repeat (something) continuously, as though to the point of deafening or exhausting somebody, or (sometimes particularly) to impress or instill (it, into someone).

   “This has been often dinned in my Ears.”

   ““Mamma, do you forget that I have promised to marry Roger Hamley?” said Cynthia quietly. “No! of course I don’t—how can I, with Molly always dinning the word ‘engagement’ into my ears? […]””