the.com/lair
where a villain expenses the lava moat and calls it home security
means A lair is a secret or hidden dwelling place, originally the resting den of a wild animal and now any private hideout, especially one belonging to someone up to no good.
from From Old English 'leger,' meaning a bed, couch, or place of lying down — the same root that lies beneath the modern word 'lie' (to recline). It has cousins across the Germanic family, like German 'Lager' (a camp or storehouse, the very same word that gives us lager beer, which is 'stored' beer). For centuries 'lair' simply meant where a beast bedded down; the menacing, villain-with-a-moat flavor is a much later glamour the word picked up along the way.
- latin root
- from 'leger,' meaning a place to lie down
- animal version
- bears and wolves keep dens; predators keep lairs
- bond budget
- villain hideouts routinely cost more than the heist
- word cousin
- shares roots with 'layer' and 'leaguer'
- real estate
- volcano interior offers terrible resale value
batcave — batman's headquarters beneath wayne manor in gotham city, first appeared in 1939
blofeld's volcano base — spectre leader's secret fortress in you only live twice, 1967 james bond film
smaug's mountain — dragon's gold-filled cave in the hobbit, located under the lonely mountain in middle-earth