Word: bastille Part of Speech: noun 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. Cognates Late Latin bastile (“wooden siege tower”), bastilla, bastillia, bastillus, bastellum (“fortification; wooden siege tower”) Pronunciation: /bæˈstiːl/, /bɑː-/, /ˈbæstɪl/, /ˈbɑː-/, [bæˈstɪəɫ] 1. 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. Example: H' incounters Talgol, routs the Bear, / And takes the Fidler Prisoner; / Conveys him to enchanted Castle, / There shuts him fast in wooden Bastile. 2. A jail or prison, especially one regarded as mistreating its prisoners. Labels: figuratively Example: 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; / By strange enchantment made to fetter / The lesser parts, and free the greater. / For though the Body may creep through, / The Hands in Grate are fast enough. Example: ―The devil it is! ſaid I—but I vvill go to ten thouſand Baſtiles firſt— […] 3. Synonym of workhouse (“an institution for homeless poor people funded by the local parish, where the able-bodied were required to work”). Labels: UK, derogatory, figuratively 4. The fortified encampment of an army besieging a place; also, any of the buildings in such an encampment. Labels: historical Example: 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.