Dungs

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term that refers to animal waste, often used as fertilizer in agriculture
2. It signifies excrement from livestock or domesticated animals, frequently valued for its nutrient content
3. Used colloquially, it can also imply something considered worthless or unpleasant in various contexts

Etymology: Dung has a plural only in a narrow sense: "dungs" is the plural of "dung", used when speakers mean separate piles or kinds of droppings rather than the substance in general. The noun itself is ancient in English, descending from Old English "dung", which already meant dung, excrement and manure. Its Proto-Germanic ancestor "dungō" points back to the Proto-Indo-European root "dʰengʰ-", meaning "to cover", so the earliest idea behind it seems to have been something spread over the ground. English once had a rival for this sense. Middle English also borrowed "fen", meaning dung or filth, from Old French "fien" and "fiente", but "dung" eventually replaced it, and "fen" survives today only as a word for marshland, a sense unrelated to muck.

Synonyms: manure, feces, excrement, droppings, guano