doney, don i

[A native word.] A native ve el in use on the Coromandel coast of the northern parts of Ceylon. It is of an ark-like form, a bout seventy feet long, twenty broad, and twelve deep, with a flat bottom or keel portion, which at the broadest place is seven feet, and at the fore and aft IMG:content-0371.png:[blocks in formation] tion. It was the strongest portion of the building, a high square tower with walls of enormous thickne , usually detached from the surrounding buildings by an open space walled, called the Inner Bailey, and another beyond called the Outer Bailey. Here, in case of the outward defenses being Donjon. gained, the garrison retreated to make their last stand. The donjon contained the great hall, and principal rooms of state for solemn occasions, and also the prison of the fortre ; from which last circumstance we derive the modern and restricted use of the word dungeon. Examples are seen in the White Tower, in the Tower of London, Rochester Castle, and the Castle at Newcastle. It was also called the Donjon-keep. [KEEP; DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE.] "Then, one by one, was heard to fall The tower, the donjon - keep , the hall." *donk, a. & s. [DANK.] Scott: Rokeby, v. 37. don-kěy, 8. [A word of doubtful origin, but probably a double dim in. from dun (from the color) by the addition of the diminutival suffixes- k (=- ick or-ock) and-y. ( Skeat .)] [DUN.] 1. Lit .: An a (q. v.). 2. Fig .: A person destitute of sense; a stupid, silly, or foolish person; an a , a blockhead. IMG:content-0372.jpg:[blocks in formation]