Stercorary

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Relating to dung or excrement, especially in the sense of waste matter from animals ; a repository or place where such dung is stored or handled
2. Of or pertaining to animal droppings and manure ; a site, such as a dungheap or enclosure, where droppings are collected
3. Connected with feces or manure in nature ; an area set aside for depositing or processing dung

Etymology: "Stercorary" comes from Latin "stercorarium," itself formed from "stercorarius," meaning "relating to dung." The root is "stercus," the Latin word for dung or manure, which gives English a whole family of blunt, scientific vocabulary: "stercoraceous" for dung-like matter and "stercoral" for anything relating to feces. The suffix "-ary" marks a place or thing connected with the base, so a stercorary is literally a dung-place. The word's sense is practical rather than poetic. Farms and estates needed a designated spot where manure could be collected, stored, and left to rot into fertilizer, and the Latin coinage named exactly that function. In English the term keeps both senses in the adjective and the noun: it describes things connected with dung, and it names the enclosure where dung is deposited or processed.

Synonyms: dunghill, midden, dung heap