Bastille

See also: bastille

English

Etymology
A c. 1790 drawing of the east view of the Bastille.

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.[1]

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /bæˈstiːl/, /bɑː-/, /ˈbæstɪl/, /ˈbɑː-/, [bæˈstɪəɫ]
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • (General American) IPA(key): /bæˈstil/
  • Audio (AU)(file)
  • Rhymes: (one pronunciation) -iːl
  • Hyphenation: Bast‧ille

Proper noun

the Bastille

  1. A former fortress and prison in Paris, France, the storming of which in 1789 began the French Revolution.

Derived terms

Translations

References
  1. “bastille, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2023; “Bastille, proper n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

Anagrams

French

Etymology

From bastille (“fortress”).

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /bas.tij/
  • Audio(file)

Proper noun

la Bastille f

  1. Bastille (“former prison”)
  2. Parisian district around place de la Bastille, where the prison stood

Derived terms
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