bastille

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See also: Bastille

English[edit]

WOTD – 14 July 2011, 14 July 2023

Etymology[edit]

An 1897 engraving of the storming of the Bastille in Paris, France, on 14 July 1789 at the start of the French Revolution. Known in full as Bastille Saint-Antoine, the Bastille was a former fortress (sense 1) used by the French monarchy as a prison in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The noun is derived from Middle English bastile, bastel (“fortification for attack mounted on a barge or wheels; projecting part of a fortification, bastion, turret; fortified encampment of a besieging army; structure carrying armed men on an elephant’s back; (figuratively) refuge, shelter; protector”) [and other forms],[1] from Anglo-Norman bastile, bastille, Middle French bastille, and Old French baastel, basstel (“fortification; fortified tower; temporary fortification constructed for attack or defence; (small) castle or fortress”) (modern French bastille; compare Medieval Latin bastīle), from bastide (“fortification; fortress”) with the ending modified after nouns ending in -ille (from Latin -īle (suffix forming place names)). Bastide is derived from Old Occitan bastida (“fortification; (Provence) country mansion”),[2][3] from bastir (“to build, construct”) + -ida (suffix forming nouns); while bastir is from Medieval Latin bastīre, the present active infinitive of bastiō (“to build, construct; to sew; to weave”), from Frankish *bastijan (“to sew; to weave”), from Proto-West Germanic *bast (“fibre; rope”), from Proto-Germanic *bastaz (“fibre; rope”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰask- ~ *bʰasḱ- (“bundle, heap, load”) but this is disputed.

Sense 2.1 (“jail or prison, especially one regarded as mistreating its prisoners”) is from the Bastille in Paris, France. Known in full as the Bastille Saint-Antoine, it was a former fortress used as a prison by the French monarchy in the 17th and 18th centuries.[2] The Bastille was stormed by a crowd on 14 July 1789 at the start of the French Revolution and later demolished, becoming an important symbol for the French Republican movement.

Sense 2.2 (“workhouse”) was possibly popularized by the English politician William Cobbett (1763–1835) who opposed the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 (4 & 5 William IV, chapter 76; often called the “New Poor Law”).[2][4] This Act made relief or welfare for poor people only available through workhouses, and ensured that the working conditions were harsh so that only the truly destitute would apply for relief.

The verb is derived from the noun.[5]

cognates

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

bastille (plural bastilles)

  2. Chiefly in French contexts: a bastion (“projecting part of a rampart or other fortification”) or tower of a castle; also, a fortified tower or other building; or a small citadel or fortress.
  3. (figuratively)
    2. A jail or prison, especially one regarded as mistreating its prisoners.
    4. (British, derogatory) Synonym of workhouse (“an institution for homeless poor people funded by the local parish, where the able-bodied were required to work”)
  4. (military, historical) The fortified encampment of an army besieging a place; also, any of the buildings in such an encampment.
    • 1659, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “[Book XXII]”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane Historie […], London: […] W. Hunt, for George Sawbridge, […], →OCLC, page 380:
      VVhen they ſhould have ſtood to it in field, and fought, then they fled back to their tends: vvhen they vvere to guard and defend their trench and rampart, they ſurrendered them to the enemy: good no vvhere, neither in battel nor in baſtil.

Alternative forms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

bastion of a castle — see bastion
tower of a castle — see tower
small citadel or fortress — see citadel,‎ fortress
synonym of workhouse — see workhouse

Verb[edit]

bastille (third-person singular simple present bastilles, present participle bastilling, simple past and past participle bastilled)

  1. (transitive, also figuratively) To confine (someone or something) in, or as if in, a bastille (noun sense 2.1) or prison; to imprison.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:imprison
    • 1745, [Edward Young], “Night the Ninth and Last. The Consolation. Containing, among Other Things, I. A Moral Survey of the Nocturnal Heavens. II. A Night-Address to the Deity. […]”, in The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, London: […] [Samuel Richardson] for A[ndrew] Millar […], and R[obert] Dodsley […], published 1750, →OCLC, page 332:
      Inſtead of forging Chains for Foreigners, / Baſtile thy Tutor: Grandeur All thy Aim?
    • 1791 (first performance), [Frederic] Reynolds, Notoriety: A Comedy, Dublin: […] P. Byrne, […], published 1792, →OCLC, Act IV, scene [i], page 43:
      [W]hy if you don't ſcamper, you'll be baſtil'd, before you can ſay, "Killarney."
    • 1793 January 17, Anna Seward, “Letter LXII. Miss Helen Williams, at Paris.”, in Letters of Anna Seward: Written between the Years 1784 and 1807. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] George Ramsay & Company, for Archibald Constable and Company; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, William Miller, and John Murray, published 1811, →OCLC, page 204:
      Behold them Bastilling the mildest and most indulgent monarch that ever sat upon their throne; […]
    • 1798, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, “[Maria: or, The] Wrongs of Woman”, in W[illiam] Godwin, editor, Posthumous Works of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. […], volume II, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […]; and G[eorge,] G[eorge] and J[ohn] Robinson, […], →OCLC, chapter X, page 34:
      Marriage had baſtilled me for life.
    • 1845, Alexandre Dumas, “What Takes Place at the House in the Rue du Bac while Waiting for Gaston”, in Charles H. Town, transl., The Regent’s Daughter. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, part III, page 72, column 1:
      Eh bien! there is another one who is beloved by one of your daughters, which did not prevent you from Bastilling him with a vengeance.
    • 1852, chapter VI, in The Court and the Desert; or, Priests, Pastors, and Philosophers, in the Time of Louis XV. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley […], →OCLC, page 109:
      "Ideas cannot be Bastilled. They pierce walls, vaults—" / "No phrases, my dear fellow: that does very well for the public, otherwise the fools. Ideas are very easily Bastilled, as you call it."
    • 1862 October, “A Southern Review”, in [Charles Godfrey Leland], editor, The Continental Monthly. Devoted to Literature and National Policy, volume II, number IV, New York, N.Y.: John F[owler] Trow, […], →OCLC, page 467, column 1:
      All the doleful stories of prisoners of earlier or later ages, in the Bastile, including much sentimental balderdash, are drawled out by a very stupid and would-be effective writer, for the purpose of proving that the imprisonment of political offenders and captives by the North is precisely on a par with that of ‘Bastiling’ them, and that Abraham Lincoln is only a revival of the worst kings of France in an American form.
    • 1863 January 8, Willard Saulsbury Sr., “Discharge of State Prisoners”, in John C. Rives, editor, The Congressional Globe: […] (United States Senate, 27th Congress, 3rd session), number 15 (New Series), Washington, D.C.: John C. Rives […] , →OCLC, page 233, column 2:
      I know that peaceable and unoffending citizens of my own State have been "bastiled" in different parts of the United States—"cut off from their family, their friends, and their every connection."
    • 1904 August, S. G. Tallentyre, “The English Friends of Voltaire”, in The Cornhill Magazine, volume XVII, number 98 (New Series), London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 221:
      For a lampoon on the Regent [Philippe II, Duke of Orléans] he [Voltaire] had been bastilled. For a fight with Rohan [Guy Auguste de Rohan-Chabot] he had been bastilled again. In prison he had changed his name and dreamt of liberty.
    • 1990, Lynn Hollen Lees, “The Survival of the Unfit: Welfare Policies and Family Maintenance in Nineteenth-century London”, in Peter Mandler, editor, The Uses of Charity: the Poor on Relief in the Nineteenth-century Metropolis, Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press, →ISBN, pages 72–73:
      Although people equated going into a workhouse with being "bastilled," this was not the sure result of asking a relieving officer for help. Before the 1870s, most London paupers received cash or bread weekly according to local officials' scale of what constituted fair or equitable relief.

Alternative forms[edit]

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ “bāstē̆l, -īl(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 “bastille, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2023.
  3. ^ “bastille, n.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Stuart Berg Flexner, editor in chief, Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1993, →ISBN.
  4. ^ See, for example, William Cobbett (1834 March 3) “Supply—Army Estimates”, in Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates: […] Third Series; […] (House of Commons), volume XXI (1st volume of the Session), London: […] T[homas] C[urson] Hansard, […], for Baldwin and Cradock;  […], →OCLC, column 1005:
    It was impossible to disconnect this question from what had been proposed with regard to the Poor-laws, and the Report brought forward on that subject, which had been sanctioned by a brace of unfeeling bishops. In that report, it was proposed that the labourers should be shut up in a sort of Bastille; […]
  5. ^ “bastille, v.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2021.

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle French bastille, from Old French baastel, basstel (“fortification; fortified tower; temporary fortification constructed for attack or defence; (small) castle or fortress”) (compare Medieval Latin bastīle), from bastide (“fortification; fortress”) with the ending modified after nouns ending in -ille (from Latin -īle (suffix forming place names)). Bastide is derived from Old Occitan bastida (“fortification; (Provence) country mansion”),[1][2] from bastir (“to build, construct”) + -ida (suffix forming nouns); while bastir is from Medieval Latin bastīre, the present active infinitive of bastiō (“to build, construct; to sew; to weave”), from Frankish *bastijan (“to sew; to weave”), from Proto-West Germanic *bast (“fibre; rope”), from Proto-Germanic *bastaz (“fibre; rope”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰask- ~ *bʰasḱ- (“bundle, heap, load”) but this is disputed.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

bastille f (plural bastilles)

  1. fortress

References[edit]

  1. ^ Compare “bastille, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2023.
  2. ^ Compare “bastille, n.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Stuart Berg Flexner, editor in chief, Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1993, →ISBN.

Further reading[edit]

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