Word of the Day:
dolmen
What It Means
A prehistoric megalithic tomb consisting of a capstone supported by two or more upright stones, most having originally been covered with earth or smaller stones to form a barrow.
Any megalithic tomb, including passage graves and wedge tombs.
Dolmen in Context
“They are expert smiths and coiners; they are said to have great treasures in the dolmen in which they dwell, and of which they are regarded as the builders.”
Did You Know?
Borrowed from French dolmen. Perhaps incorrectly fabricated from Breton taol maen (taol (“table”) + maen (“stone”)) (the correct compound would be *taolvaen, not **daolmaen). An alternative theory states the French term derives instead from Cornish tolmen, from toll (“hole”) + men (“stone”); compare the name of the Cornish standing stones Men an Toll. See also menhir.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dolmen (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the word and reformatted its meaning, examples and origin.
Cite this entry: “dolmen.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dolmen. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
