midden

Etymology

From Middle English midding, myddyng, from Old Danish mykdyngja, (a compound of Old Norse myk, myki (“muck, manure”) and dyngja (“dung, dungpile”)), whence also Danish møgdynge and mødding, Norwegian mødding, dialectal Swedish mödding.

noun

1. A dungheap.
2. A refuse heap usually near a dwelling.
   Untouched by the decaying middens in which they live, they emerge into the sunshine immaculate and serene. The Burmese must be the best-dressed people in the world. 1952, Norman Lewis, Golden Earth
   Strange rubbish, not the tins and paper and boxes and other containers you would expect in a town, but a finer kind of waste […] that made the middens look like grey-black mounds of sifted earth. 1979, V. S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River
3. (archaeology) A prehistoric pile of bones and shells.
4. (zoology) A shelter made of vegetation and other materials by packrats.
5. (zoology) An accumulation of dried urine and fecal deposits made by hyraxes.