belfry

From Middle English belfrey, bellfray, belfray, from Old French belfroi, berfroi, berfrey (changed to have an l by association with bell), from Middle High German bërcvrit (“'mountain peace', a defensive tower”) / bërvrit,[1][2][3] possibly via Late Latin berefredus, from Proto-Germanic *bergafriþuz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerĝʰ, *bʰr̥ĝʰ + *prāy-, *prēy- (“to like, love”).

• enPR: bĕlʹfrē, IPA^(key): /ˈbɛlfɹi/

belfry (plural belfries)

1. (obsolete) A movable tower used in sieges.
2. (dialectal) A shed.
3. (obsolete) An alarm-tower; a watchtower containing an alarm-bell.
4. (architecture) A tower or steeple specifically for containing bells, especially as part of a church.
5. (architecture) A part of a large tower or steeple, specifically for containing bells.
   • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare & Co.; Sylvia Beach, OCLC 560090630; republished London: Published for the Egoist Press, London by John Rodker, Paris, October 1922, OCLC 2297483:

     Episode 12, The Cyclops

     From the belfries far and near the funereal deathbell tolled unceasingly while all around the gloomy precincts rolled the ominous warning of a hundred muffled drums punctuated by the hollow booming of pieces of ordnance.

• have bats in one's belfry, have bats in the belfry

• “Belfry” in Michael Quinion, Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, 2004, →ISBN.