castrum

English

Noun

castrum (plural castra)

1. (historical) Among the Ancient Romans, a building or plot of land used as a military defensive position.

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Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *ḱes- (“to cut, cut off, separate”) (Watkins, 1969). An older etymology (1899) derived castrum from Latin casa, and proposed an ultimate etymon from a Sanskrit root (sic) *skad-, "to cover". See also castrō, careō.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈkas.trum/, [ˈkäs̠t̪rʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkas.trum/, [ˈkäst̪rum]

Noun

1. castle, fort
2. (chiefly plural) camp, especially a military camp
   • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 5.9:

     Caesar exposito exercitu et loco castris idoneo capto […]

     Caesar, having disembarked his army and chosen a convenient place for the camp […]

Derived terms

• castellum
• castra

Descendants

• Albanian: -kastër
• Arabic: قَصْر (qaṣr)
  • Azeri: qəsr
  • Catalan: alcàsser, Alcàsser
  • English: ksar, qasr
  • Old Portuguese: alcaçar, alcaçer
    • Galician: alcázar
    • Portuguese: alcácer
  • Old Spanish: alcaçar, alcacer
    • Spanish: alcázar
      • French: alcazar
      • English: alcazar
  • Persian: قصر (qasr)
  • Tajik: қаср (qasr)
  • Uzbek: qasr

• Medieval Greek: κάστρον (kástron)
  • Greek: κάστρο n (kástro)
• Old English: cester
  • English: -caster, -cester, -chester, Chester
• Old Portuguese: castro, Castro
  • Galician: castro, Castro
  • Portuguese: castro, crasto, Castro
• Old Spanish:
  • Spanish: castro, Castro
• Romanian: castru

References

• “castrum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• castrum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • veterans; experienced troops: qui magnum in castris usum habent
    
  • to disarm a person: armis (castris) exuere aliquem
    
  • to leave troops to guard the camp: praesidio castris milites relinquere
    
  • to mount guard in the camp: vigilias agere in castris (Verr. 4. 43)
    
  • to keep the troops in camp: copias castris continere
    
  • to remain inactive in camp: se (quietum) tenere castris
    
• Pokorny, Julius (1959) Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 2, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 586