also foxhole, Old English fox-hol "a fox's den," from fox (n.) + hole (n.). Military sense of "slit trench" is from late in World War I (1918).
The term "fox-hole" is used by the German soldier, as determined from the examination Of large numbers of prisoners, to describe a hole in the ground sufficient to give shelter from splinters and perhaps from the weather also, to one or two soldiers. [U.S. First Army summary report, Oct. 31, 1918]
late 14c., "daily, happening every day," from Late Latin diurnalis "daily," from Latin dies "day" + -urnus, an adjectival suffix denoting time (compare hibernus "wintery"). Dies "day" is from PIE root *dyeu- "to shine" (source also of Sanskrit diva "by day," Welsh diw, Breton deiz "day;" Armenian tiw; Lithuanian diena; Old Church Slavonic dini, Polish dzień, Russian den).
From early 15c. as "performed in or occupying one day;" 1620s as "of or belonging to the daytime (as distinguished from nocturnal). Related: Diurnally.
early 14c., "den, cave, gollow nook," from Old English cofa "small chamber, cell," from Proto-Germanic *kubon (compare Old High German kubisi "tent, hut," German Koben "pigsty," Old Norse kofi "hut, shed").
Extension of meaning to "small bay, inlet, or creek" is from 1580s, apparently via Scottish dialectal meaning "small hollow place in coastal rocks" (a survival of an Old English secondary sense). Also in early Middle English, "chamber, closet, pantry," hence the legal phrase cove and keie "right of the mistress of a household to control 'pantry and key,'" that is, to manage the household (late 13c.).
early 15c., sisamie, probably from Latin sesamum (nominative sesama), from Greek sesamon (Doric sasamon) "seed or fruit of the sesame plant," a very early borrowing via Phoenician from Late Babylonian *shawash-shammu (compare Assyrian shamash-shammu "sesame," literally "oil-seed"). Medieval Latin had it as sisaminum; Old French as sisamin.
First as a magic password in a 1785 translation of Galland's "Mille et une nuits," where it opens the door of the thieves' den in "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves." The exact phrase open sesame is attested from 1793 in another translation, current since about 1826.
"natural marking found on some stones in the form of branching shrubs, trees, or mosses," 1745, from Greek dendrites "of or pertaining to a tree," from dendron "tree," from PIE *der-drew-, from root *deru- "to be firm, solid, steadfast," also forming words for "wood, tree."
bright star in the tail of the constellation Cygnus the Swan, by 1741, from Arabic Al Dhanab al Dajajah "the Hen's Tail."
city in Colorado, U.S., founded 1858 as Auraria ("golden"), renamed 1859 for Gen. James W. Denver (1817-1892), governor of the territory. The family name is from the place of that name in Norfolk, literally "ford or passage used by the Danes," from Old English Dena (genitive plural) + fær"journey, road, passage, expedition," from strong neuter of faran "to journey" (see fare (v.)).
The Denver boot or shoe (1967), a wheel clamp for illegally parked vehicles, supposedly was invented 1953 by Frank Marugg, pattern-maker and violinist with the Denver Symphony Orchestra. He was a friend of politicians and police department officials, and the city sheriff's department came to him for help in making a device to immobilize vehicles whose owners didn't pay parking tickets.
