down [OE] Downs are gently rolling hills. The word down may be of Celtic origin and related to early Irish dún and obsolete Welsh din ‘fort’, which go back to an ancient root shared by *town and dune [E17th]. The everyday down, ‘towards a lower place’, is also Old English. It is a shortening of a-down, itself a reduction of off down ‘off the hill’. The phrase down and out, ‘completely without resources, defeated in life’, probably comes from boxing. It referred to a boxer who was knocked out by a blow. Since the late 19th century a down-and-out has been a person without money, a job, or a place to live. The fluffy down that forms the first covering of a young bird is unrelated. It came in early Middle English from an old Scandinavian word.