Latin

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Etymology

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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

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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

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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

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Descendants

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References

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  • 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.