Nissen hut
- noun
- /ˈnɪsən hʌt/
- Archaic
:
cabaña Nissen
- It is identical to the enlisted men's Nissen hut, but less crowded with six bunks rather than twelve.
Examples
-
The military used a large Nissen hut to store supplies for the upcoming mission.
-
During the war, soldiers often stayed in a Nissen hut for temporary shelter and storage.
-
High above the Nissen hut, the last of the Lancasters began their long trek east.
Fiction book (1990) -
The six canary-yellow Nissen huts had been airlifted onto the icecap in prefabricated sections at tremendous effort and expense.
Fiction book (2000) -
After the storm, the team took refuge in a well-built Nissen hut to avoid the harsh weather.
Synonyms
217
1.0
A small simple building where people live or stay
1
9.1
A simple curved metal building often used for storage or housing
A small temporary shelter soldiers use while in the field
A small temporary building where soldiers sleep and live during training or war
Surface Forms
Morphology
Nissen + hut
The element 'Nissen' is a proper name with no independent lexical meaning, while 'hut' is a transparent noun; a B1 learner who knows both would infer that this refers to a particular kind or model of hut (type-of relationship). However, the specific properties (corrugated iron, semicircular form, military use) are not predictable from the name alone, so the full meaning is only partially recoverable from the constituents.
Etymology
Nissen hut comes from the name of its 'inventor', Peter Nissen, who made a simple curved metal shelter for soldiers in World War I. The roof is shaped like a half circle and made of wavy metal so people could put the hut up quickly, and that's why Nissen hut now means a quick, simple metal shelter used for soldiers or storage.