Doune

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An old Scots spelling meaning downward or at a lower place ; a village and medieval castle in Stirling, Scotland
2. A variant of the word down, used in older or Scottish writing ; a place name for a village and castle in central Scotland
3. Meaning toward a lower position in Scots and older English ; the name of a small Scottish village famous for its castle

Etymology: "Doune" is simply an obsolete spelling of "down", and its history runs back to a word for a hill. In Old English, "of dūne" meant literally "off the hill", that is, downhill, from "of" (off) plus "dūn" (hill, mount). Over time the phrase was shortened to "adūne" and then to "dūne", and the directional sense of "going off the hill" widened into the general idea of motion or position below. Middle English spelled the result "doun" or "doune", and the sense shifted from the direction itself to the adverb and preposition we use today. The same "dūn" root survives in a sibling word. Old English "dūn" also meant a sandhill, the origin of the modern "dune", and the two words are doublets, both descended from one ancient root and reaching English by different routes. Related forms appear across the Germanic languages, including Dutch "duin" and German "Düne", both meaning "dune". Scots kept a close relative in "doon", which is a cognate of the English word.