hovel

See also: høvel

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɒvəl

Noun

hovel ‎(plural hovels)

1. An open shed for sheltering cattle, or protecting produce, etc., from the weather.
2. A poor cottage; a small, mean house; a hut.
   • 1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, The Three Corpse Trick:

     The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.

3. In the manufacture of porcelain, a large, conical brick structure around which the firing kilns are grouped.

Translations

open shed

• Finnish: lato (fi)

• Italian: riparo (it) m, ricovero (it) m, tettoia (it) f
• Russian: хлев (ru) m ‎(xlev), амба́р (ru) m ‎(ambár), сара́й (ru) m ‎(saráj)

poor cottage

• Armenian: խրճիթ ‎(xrčitʿ)
• Catalan: enfony m
• Czech: salaš (cs) f
• Esperanto: domaĉo
• Finnish: tönö (fi)
• Icelandic: hreysi (is) n, kofi (is) m

• Ido: domacho (io)
• Italian: stamberga f, buco (it) m, fogna (it) f
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: کپر (fa) ‎(kapar)
• Romanian: cocioabă (ro) f
• Russian: хибара (ru) f ‎(xibara), лачу́га (ru) f ‎(lačúga)

structure in porcelain manufacture

Verb

hovel ‎(third-person singular simple present hovels, present participle hovelling or hoveling, simple past and past participle hovelled or hoveled)

1. (transitive) To put in a hovel; to shelter.
   • Shakespeare

     To hovel thee with swine, and rogues forlorn.

   • Alfred Tennyson

     The poor are hovelled and hustled together.