bastille
UK /bæˈstiːl/ · US /bæˈstil/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms bastilles bastilling bastilled the Bastille bastile
- noun 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.
- noun A jail or prison, especially one regarded as mistreating its prisoners.
- noun (UK, derogatory) Synonym of workhouse (“an institution for homeless poor people funded by the local parish, where the able-bodied were required to work”).
- noun (military, historical) The fortified encampment of an army besieging a place; also, any of the buildings in such an encampment.
- verb (transitive, also figuratively) To confine (someone or something) in, or as if in, a bastille (noun sense 2.1) or prison; to imprison.
- proper noun A former fortress and prison in Paris, France, the storming of which in 1789 began the French Revolution.
Synonyms
workhouse bang up clap up confine gaol incarcerate immure imprison jail lock up mew up put away roof send down
Etymology
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], 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”), from bastir (“to build, construct”) + -ida (suffix forming nouns); while bastir is from *bastīre, from Frankish *bastijan (“to sew; to weave”), from Proto-West Germanic *bast (“fibre; rope”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰask- ~ *bʰasḱ- (“bundle, heap, load”) but this is disputed.
Compare typologically Russian опло́т (oplót), плете́нь (pleténʹ) (akin to плести́ (plestí)).
Noun 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. 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.
Noun 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”). 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.
Late Latin bastile (“wooden siege tower”), bastilla, bastillia, bastillus, bastellum (“fortification; wooden siege tower”)
Borrowed from French Bastille, from bastille (“fortress”): see further at the English entry bastille. The building was known in full as the Bastille Saint-Antoine, and was a former fortress used as a prison by the French monarchy in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A tower or an elevated work, used for the defense, or in the siege, of a fortified place.
- noun "The Bastille", formerly a castle or fortress in Paris, used as a prison, especially for political offenders; hence, a rhetorical name for a prison.
Etymology [F. bastille fortress, OF. bastir to build, F. b.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “bastille”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details