bastille

See also: Bastille

English

WOTD – 14 July 2011

Alternative forms

bastile (obsolete)

Etymology

From French bastille, from Late Latin bastilia, plural of bastile, from bastire (“to build”).

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): [bæˈstɪəɫ], [bæˈstiːɫ]
Audio (AU) (file)

Noun

bastille (plural bastilles)

A castle tower, or fortified building; a small citadel or fortress.
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) (amrocʿ), 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

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

French

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /bastij/
Rhymes: -ij

Noun

bastille f (plural bastilles)

fortress

Further reading

“bastille” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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