dingy: [18] Nobody is quite sure where dingy comes from, but the very occasional occurrence of ding or dinge as Middle English forms of dung suggests that it may originally have signified ‘dung-coloured’ (although if it came from such a source it might have been expected to rhyme with springy rather than stingy). Dung [OE] itself appears to go back ultimately to an Indo-European base *dhengh- denoting ‘covering’ (relatives include the Lithuanian verb dengti ‘cover’), so its etymological significance is ‘material spread over the earth (for fertilization)’ rather than ‘excrement’. => dung
dingy (adj.)
1736, Kentish dialect, "dirty," of uncertain origin, but perhaps related to dung. The noun dinge (1816) is a back-formation.
雙語例句
1. He was living alone in a dingy bedsit in London.
他獨自一人住在倫敦一間昏暗的客臥兩用出租屋里。
來自柯林斯例句
2. Then he looked about upon a dingy, moth - eaten hotel lobby.