bastille

See also: Bastille

English

WOTD – 14 July 2011

Alternative forms

• bastile (obsolete)

Etymology

From French bastille, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Late Latin bastilia, plural of bastile, from bastire (“to build”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [bæˈstɪəɫ], [bæˈstiːɫ]

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Noun

bastille (plural bastilles)

1. A castle tower, or fortified building; a small citadel or fortress.
2. A prison or jail.
   • 1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, I.2:

     Thither arriv'd, th' advent'rous Knight / And bold Squire from their Steeds alight, / At th' outward Wall, near which there stands / A Bastile, built t' imprison Hands [...].

Translations

castle tower, or fortified building; small citadel or fortress

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: ամրոց (hy) (amrocʻ), աշտարակ (hy) (aštarak)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 城堡 (zh) (chéngbǎo)

• Czech: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: donjon (nl) m
• Finnish: bastilji
• French: bastion (fr) m
• German: please add this translation if you can
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hindi: क़िला m (qilā)
• Italian: please add this translation if you can
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Portuguese: bastilha (pt) f
• Russian: кре́пость (ru) f (krépostʹ)
• Spanish: fortaleza (es) f
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

fortress — see fortress

citadel — see citadel

prison — see prison

Anagrams

• Balliets, bile salt, listable

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French

Etymology

From Medieval Latin bastilia, plural of bastile, from Medieval Latin bastīre (“to build, sew”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bas.tij/
• Rhymes: -ij

Noun

bastille f (plural bastilles)

1. fortress

Further reading

• “bastille”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.