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bas·tille

(bă-stēl)

A prison; a jail.

[Middle English, from Old French, fortress, alteration (with noun suffix -ille) of bastide, from Old Provençal bastida, newly built and fortified village, from feminine of bastit, past participle of bastir, to build, from Germanic *bastjan, to baste, tack, fasten with bast fiber; see BASTE¹.]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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