Hovel

Hovel (pronounced hov-ill)

(1) A small, very humble dwelling house; a wretched hut.

(2) Any dirty, disorganized dwelling.

(3) A roofed passage, a vent for smoke (thought likely related to the use in the kilns used to fire pottery).

(4) An open or semi-open shed, for sheltering cattle, storing tools or protecting produce, etc from the weather.

(5) To shelter or lodge (archaic).

(6) In the manufacture of porcelain, a large, conical brick structure around which the firing kilns are grouped.

(7) In the interior design of churches, a canopied niche for a statue or image.

Circa 1425: From the late Middle English hovel, hovel, hovel and hovylle.  The origin is contested, some sources suggesting it’s a diminutive of the Old English hof (an enclosure, court, dwelling, house, farmhouse), from the Proto-Germanic hufą (hill, farm), from the primitive Indo-European kewp (arch, bend, buckle), the construct being howf +‎ -el. It was said to be cognate with the Dutch hof (garden, court), the German Hof (yard, garden, court, palace) and the Icelandic hof (temple, hall) and related in Modern English to both hove and hover.  The noun hovelling (or hoveling) describes a method of securing a good draught in chimneys by covering the top, leaving openings in the sides, or by carrying up two of the sides higher than the other two.  Hovel is a noun and hovelled & hovelling are verbs; the noun plural is hovels. 

Although scholars seem to agree the Middle English hovel, hovel, hovel and hovylle emerged in the fifteenth century; some dismiss the link to the Old English hof, Oxford English Dictionary (OED) maintaining it's "etymologically and chronologically inadmissible" and that hovel is of unknown origin.  The meaning "shed for human habitation; rude or miserable cabin" wasn’t adopted until 1620; prior to that it was used only to describe structures used for animals, objects or as workspaces not used as domestic accommodation.  The specialised use, mostly in the interiors of churches and chapels, to mean "a canopied niche for a statue or image" is from the mid-fifteenth century but faded from use as architecture became increasingly professional and international; it was replaced by aedicule.  About the only thing on which all agree is the plural form is hovels.