Wiktionary

fascine

See also: fasciné

English

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WOTD – 30 August 2022

Etymology

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Fascines (sense 1) used to strengthen the riverbank of the Templin Channel in Templin, Brandenburg, Germany.
 
Trenches in Petersburg, Virginia, strengthened with fascines (sense 2) during the American Civil War (1861–1865).
 
A Chieftain armoured vehicle of the British Army’s Corps of Royal Engineers carrying fascines (sense 2) made up of plastic pipes. These fascines are used to fill in ditches that the vehicle needs to cross.

The noun is borrowed from French fascine (“bundle of kindling; bundle of branches used to build defences, fill in ditches, etc.; logs arranged horizontally between piles on the banks of a watercourse as an erosion barrier”), from Old French faissine, from Latin fascīna (“bundle of sticks”), from fascis (“bundle of sticks, faggot, fascine; bundle, package; burden, load”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰask- (“band; bundle”)) + -īna (the nominative, vocative, or ablative feminine singular of -īnus (suffix forming nouns)).[1]

The verb is derived from the noun.[2]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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fascine (plural fascines)

  1. (chiefly construction) Originally a cylindrical bundle of small sticks of wood, and now often a bundle of plastic pipes, bound together, and used for strengthening purposes, such as in revetments for riverbanks, and in mats for dams, jetties, etc.
  2. (specifically, military fortification) A similar bundle of sticks of wood or plastic pipes used for filling in ditches for armoured fighting vehicles to drive over, and for making parapets, raising batteries, and strengthening ramparts.
    • 1748, [Tobias Smollett], chapter XXXII, in The Adventures of Roderick Random. […], volume I, London: […] [William Strahan] for J[ohn] Osborn […], →OCLC, page 284:
      Our forces being landed and ſtationed as I have already mentioned, ſet about erecting a faſchine battery to cannonade the principal fort of the enemy, and in ſomething more than three vveeks, it vvas ready to open.
    • 1786, Francis Grose, “Morris Pikes”, in A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, […], London: […] S. Hooper, […], →OCLC, pages 51–52:
      Halberts differ very little from the bill, being like them conſtructed both for puſhing and cutting: a halbert conſiſts of three parts, the ſpear, or ſometimes a kind of ſvvord blade for puſhing, an ax, or hatchet for ſtriking and cutting, and a flook or hook for pulling down faſcines, in the attack of trenches, or temporary fortifications.
  3. (figuratively, rare) Something which is used for defensive purposes.

Hyponyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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fascine (third-person singular simple present fascines, present participle fascining, simple past and past participle fascined)

  1. (transitive, originally military, chiefly New Zealand) To use fascines to build or reinforce (something), or to fill in (a trench, etc.).

Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “fascine, n.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2022; “fascine, n.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Stuart Berg Flexner, editor in chief, Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1993, →ISBN.
  2. ^ “fascine, v.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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French

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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fascine

  1. inflection of fasciner:
    1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
    2. second-person singular imperative

Anagrams

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Italian

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Noun

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fascine f

  1. plural of fascina

Anagrams

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Portuguese

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Verb

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fascine

  1. inflection of fascinar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Spanish

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Verb

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fascine

  1. inflection of fascinar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative
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