bollard

English

Two bollards (1)

Concrete bollards (2) segregating a pedestrian area from a roadway

Etymology

From Middle English bollard, probably from Middle English bole (“tree trunk”), equivalent to bole +‎ -ard (pejorative or diminutive suffix).

Pronunciation

• (rhotic) IPA^(key): /ˈbɒləɹd/
• (non-rhotic) IPA^(key): /ˈbɒlɑːd/, /ˈbɒləd/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒlə(ɹ)d

Noun

bollard (plural bollards)

1. (nautical) A strong vertical post of timber or iron, fixed to the ground and/or on the deck of a ship, to which the ship's mooring lines etc are secured. A bitt.
   • 1959, Mervyn Peake, Titus Alone:

     Today he had for bollard the unfinished monument half-erected to some all but forgotten anarchist.

   • 1965, Poul Anderson, The Star Fox:

     He sat on a bollard, looking out across the water, a man more small and shabby than expected.

2. A similar post preventing vehicle access to a pedestrian area, to delineate traffic lanes, or used for security purposes.

Derived terms

• bollard condition

Translations

post to secure mooring lines

• Bulgarian: вързало (bg) n (vǎrzalo), кнехт m (kneht)
• Catalan: norai (ca) m
• Czech: pachole (cs) n
• Danish: pullert c
• Dutch: meerpaal (nl) m, bolder (nl) m, aanlegpaal m
• Esperanto: bito
• Finnish: pollari (fi)
• French: bollard (fr) m (rarely used), bitte d’amarrage (fr) f (mooring bollard), bitte (fr) f (rarely used as bitte used alone is a widely used slang word for penis)
• Galician: norai m, bita f
• German: Poller (de) m, Pfahl (de) m
• Hungarian: kikötőbak (hu)
• Icelandic: polli (is) m
• Irish: ceap ceangail m
• Italian: bitta (it) f, galloccia f
• Latin: caudex m
• Malay: tonggak
• Maori: pūtiki
• Norman: lache f
• Polish: pachołek (pl) m
• Portuguese: cabeço (pt) m
• Russian: кнехт (ru) m (knext), прико́л (ru) m (prikól), шварто́вная ту́мба f (švartóvnaja túmba)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: би̏тва f

  Roman: bȉtva (sh) f

• Spanish: noray (es) m, bolardo (es) m
• Swedish: pollare (sv) c
• Turkish: baba (tr)

post preventing vehicles from entering pedestrian area

• Catalan: bol·lard (ca) m
• Czech: sloupek (cs)
• Danish: pullert c
• Dutch: verkeerspaal (nl) m (road bollard), poller (nl) m (retractible road bollard)
• Finnish: pollari (fi), betonipylväs
• French: borne (fr) f, bollard (fr) m
• Galician: bolardo m
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Poller (de) m, Absperrpoller m
• Hungarian: oszlop (hu)
• Irish: ceap ceangail m, mullard m
• Italian: paracarro (it) m, pilastro (it) m, spartitraffico (it) m, colonnina (it) f
• Malay: tonggak
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: pullert m

• Polish: słupek (pl) m
• Portuguese: pilarete (pt) m
• Russian: столб (ru) m (stolb), ту́мба (ru) f (túmba)
• Spanish: bolardo (es) m, pilona f, pivote (es) m
• Swedish: pollare (sv) c
• Turkish: baba (tr)

See also

• (traffic bollard): traffic cone
• (ship's mooring line attachment): capstan