Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun historical A small Roman detached fort or fortlet used as a watch tower or signal station.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin

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Examples

  • Once the cool, rushing mountain water entered the city into a collection area called a castellum—an enormous cistern made of cement-lined stone—the plumbarii took over.

    Flushed W. Hodding Carter 2006

  • Once the cool, rushing mountain water entered the city into a collection area called a castellum—an enormous cistern made of cement-lined stone—the plumbarii took over.

    Flushed W. Hodding Carter 2006

  • The castellum is a rectangle, four hundred and sixty-five by seven hundred and four feet, and is surrounded by two deep ditches and by high parapets.

    Lippincott's Magazine, October 1885 Various

  • And when they saw that they were getting nowhere they also prepared hurdles for an attack by storm upon the castellum.

    De Re Militari: The Society for Medieval Military History » Medieval Warfare in the reign of Charlemagne 2009

  • Sure in Dutch and German there's quite a few very early loanwords like the word for 'horse' paard/pferd from Middle Latin paraveredus and kasteel 'castle' from castellum or maybe an early french dialect without vocalisation of the l.

    Searching for an etymology for Germanic *handuz 'hand' 2009

  • From those smaller castellum, smaller lead pipes fed different bathhouses and the public fountains, and even smaller lead pipes ran to private homes.

    Flushed W. Hodding Carter 2006

  • Water left the castellum via lead pipes that fed smaller water-containment areas within the city walls.

    Flushed W. Hodding Carter 2006

  • From those smaller castellum, smaller lead pipes fed different bathhouses and the public fountains, and even smaller lead pipes ran to private homes.

    Flushed W. Hodding Carter 2006

  • Water left the castellum via lead pipes that fed smaller water-containment areas within the city walls.

    Flushed W. Hodding Carter 2006

  • Atque vltrà montem in discensu eius in orientem est villa siue castellum

    The Voyages and Travels of Sir John Mandeville 2004

Comments

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  • From "Haile Selassie Funeral Train" by Guy Davenport.

    January 19, 2010