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Peñafiel Castle, Castile-Leon, Spain (photo by Pedro Fernandez Photography) |
CASTLE
Noun. Late Old English.
[Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French castel variant of chastel (modern château) from Latin castellum diminutive of castrum fortified place.
In branch II rendering late Latin (Vulgate) castellum village, Latin castra camp.]
I
1(a) A (usually large) fortified building or set of buildings;
a stronghold (literally & figuratively);
(especially in proper names) a mansion that was once such.
Also (in proper names), a site of ancient earthworks. LOE
1(b) A model or representation of such a building or buildings. ME
2 A tower mounted on an elephant's back;
a movable tower formerly used in warfare. ME
3 An elevated structure on the deck of a ship. obsolete except in FORECASTLE. ME
4 A large ship, especially of war. literary. L16
5 CHESS = ROOK noun. M17
II
6 In biblical translations and allusions: a village. LOE-M16
7 singular & (usually) in plural. A camp. ME-L15
I love castles! I always have, ever since I was a wee nipper running around their ruins with a toy sword, picking off imaginary vikings from the arrowslits, tipping back the scaling ladders with a wooden fork, before finally charging up to the top of the ramparts to give those rotters on the battering ram a healthy dose of boiling lead to the head. Phrwoah! Bam! Brilliant! I rather think if I had a toy sword in front of me now, I might just pop a saucepan on my head and charge around the kitchen for a bit. Huzzah! Considering the important place that castles have had in British (and European) history, it doesn't seem too surprising that there are quite a few castle-words in English. Therefore, in honour of all the saucepan-sounding, wooden sword swinging, battlecry bounding little boys out there, I present you with a selection of English's finest castellar words:
CASTELLAN
Noun. Also castellane (obsolete). LME
The governor of a castle (or, in layman's terms, 'the king of the castle', as opposed to 'the dirty rascal'.)
CASTELLAR
Adjective. L18
Pertaining to or of the nature of a castle.
CASTELLATE
Verb. Rare. M19
To take the form of a castle, or to build like a castle (with battlements, etc).
CASTELLATED
Adjective. L17
1) Built like a castle, or 2) Dotted with castles.
CASTELLATION
Noun. E19
The building of castles or battlements.
CASTELRY
Noun. Obsolete except Historical. L17
A castle's territory or jurisdiction.
CASTILIAN
Noun. Obsolete except Historical. L16
A member of a castle's garrison, or a person living in a castle.
CASTLET
Noun. M16
A small castle."Aww! Bless!" isn't really the desired response from your enemy when they first
catch sight of your castlet walls, but at least there'll be no clearly-compensating-for-something jokes.
catch sight of your castlet walls, but at least there'll be no clearly-compensating-for-something jokes.
What's the difference between a castle, a palace and a fort, anyway?
While we're on the subject of all words castellar, if you've ever wondered about the exact difference between a castle, a palace and a fort, you may be frustrated to learn that it's not set in stone (brilliant pun). However, speaking generally, a palace is an unfortified royal residence, or the residence of some other high-ranking dignitary, and they're not built to withstand attack. A castle, on the hand, is also a residence, but is specifically designed with fortification in mind, and thus they have many common features, such a thick walls, defensive positions, moats, drawbridges, arrowslits, etc. Finally, a fort is a purely military structure, built as a defensive position or one from which offensive operations can be conducted. Oh, and a fort is the only one that can be made out of your Mum's duvet.
Do you like castles?
Do you have a favourite castle or castellar word?
Do please rampart your knowledge and make a moat point by commenting in the box below.
Bouillon Castle is not only named after a sort of gravy, but in WW2 it was successfully defended with a single machine gun. Or so they told us when we visited it.
ReplyDeleteNext time I'm passing through Bouillon, I shall be sure to give the tour guide a thorough quizzing on the subject.
DeleteI LOVE CASTLES!
ReplyDeleteAnd I like all those other words as well.
Yeah me too. 'Castlet' nearly qualified for an entry of its own, but I had to remind myself: "Ed! C'mon! Let's get this project done before you're 50 ..."
DeleteI got the blame for building a castle once but it wasn't my fort.
ReplyDelete-clueless.
Unlike bad puns, which clearly are your fort ... boom boom!
DeleteLovely explanation, thanks ;)
ReplyDeleteGlad you like it, Peter.
DeleteI'm another castle lover. Especially those with moats and drawbridges, as in the old fairy tales!
ReplyDeleteAnd I would love to see some of the stairwells - I read somewhere they always turned clockwise!
Ah, how I would love to see a real castle!
And yes, a great explanation Ed! Ta!
Yes, that's (generally) true - it would mean a right-handed attacker, pushing a defender back into the tower, would be at a serious disadvantage as his sword would keep hitting the wall. However, I have been to one castle in Ireland (Ashford Castle in Cong) where there is a watchtower that had the staircase running the other way. I tried to express my bemusement at this oversight to the group I was with, but no one listened. Perhaps the defending garrison was a bunch of southpaws.
Delete