belfry

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English

Etymology

From Middle English belfrey, bellfray, belfray, from Old French belfroi, berfroi, berfrey (changed to have an ⟨l⟩ by association with bell), from Middle High German bërcvrit or bërvrit (“defensive tower”) (modern German Bergfried), possibly via Late Latin berefredus, from Proto-Germanic *bergafriþuz. Doublet of bergfried.

Pronunciation

Noun

belfry (plural belfries)

  1. (architecture) A tower or steeple typically containing bells, especially as part of a church.
  2. (architecture) A part of a large tower or steeple, specifically for containing bells.
    • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[The Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, , →OCLC:
      From the belfries far and near the funereal deathbell tolled unceasingly while all around the gloomy precincts rolled the ominous warning of a hundred muffled drums punctuated by the hollow booming of pieces of ordnance.
  3. (dialectal) A shed.
  4. (obsolete) A movable tower used in sieges.
  5. (obsolete) An alarm-tower; a watchtower possibly containing an alarm-bell.

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “belfry”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
  2. ^ “belfry”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
  3. ^ Alternative spelling and languages with loanwords from the Middle High German word, in Benecke's Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch
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