burgus

Latin

Etymology

First attested in the early second century CE, of uncertain provenance: It is no doubt a borrowing, but it could be from Proto-West Germanic *burg, Ancient Greek πύργος (púrgos), or rather a lost Balkan cognate: it is a word that travelled far, even to earliest Arabic as بُرْج (burj). The forest of Teutoburg appears mentioned as early as Tacitus (Annales, I, 60: “Teutoburgiensis saltus”), who describes the events that occurred more than half a century earlier (9 CE).

Noun

burgus m (genitive burgī); second declension

1. (Late Latin, originally) A fort or castle, especially a smaller one; a watchtower.
2. (Late Latin, generally) A fortified town; a walled town.
3. (Medieval Latin) A borough: a town specially incorporated and with special rights.

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	burgus	burgī
Genitive	burgī	burgōrum
Dative	burgō	burgīs
Accusative	burgum	burgōs
Ablative	burgō	burgīs
Vocative	burge	burgī

Derived terms

• burgāre
  • ⇒ Medieval Latin: burgātor
    • Old French: burgeor
      • → Medieval Latin: burglātor (British)
        • → Middle English: burgulator
          • ⇒ Middle English: burglar
            • English: burglar
• burgēnsis
• firma burgi

Descendants

• Old Catalan: burch
  • Catalan: burg
• Italian: borgo
• Old Occitan: burg, burc
• Old Galician-Portuguese: burgo
  • Galician: burgo
  • Portuguese: burgo
• Sardinian: burgu
• Spanish: burgo

References

• “burgus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• burgus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• burgus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.