down

{{11}}down (adv.) late O.E. aphetic form of O.E. ofdune "downwards," from dune "from the hill," dative of dun "hill" (see DOWN (Cf. down) (n.²)). A sense development peculiar to English. Used as a preposition since c.1500. Sense of "depressed mentally" is attested from c.1600. Slang sense of "aware, wide awake" is attested from 1812. Computer crash sense is from 1965. As a preposition from late 14c.; as a verb from 1560s; as an adj. from 1560s. Down-and-out is from 1889, Amer.Eng., from situation of a beaten prizefighter. Down home (adj.) is 1931, Amer.Eng.; down the hatch as a toast is from 1931; down to the wire is 1901, from horse-racing. Down time is from 1952. Down under "Australia and New Zealand" attested from 1886; Down East "Maine" is from 1825.

{{12}}down (n.¹) "soft feathers," late 14c., from O.N. dunn, perhaps ultimately from PIE root *dheu- (1) "to fly about (like dust), to rise in a cloud."

{{12}}down (n.²) O.E. dun "down, moor; height, hill, mountain," from P.Gmc. *dunaz- (Cf. M.Du. dunen "sandy hill," Du. duin, "probably a pre-insular loan-word from Celtic" [Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names], in other words, borrowed at a very early period, before the Anglo-Saxon migration. The non-English Germanic words tend to mean "dune, sand bank" (Cf. DUNE (Cf. dune)), while the Celtic cognates tend to mean "hill, citadel" (Cf. O.Ir. dun "hill, hill fort;" Welsh din "fortress, hill fort;" and second element in place names London, Verdun, etc.). From PIE root *dheue- "to close, finish, come full circle." Meaning "elevated rolling grassland" is from c.1300. Ger. Düne, Fr. dune, Italian, Spanish duna are said to be loan-words from Dutch.