burg

Etymology

In the OED's view it is borrowed from Proto-Germanic *burgz, the earlier form of the word that became borough in English, and the source of Late Latin burgus.^[2] The sources give different routes for the two senses.^[3][4][5][6] For the historians' sense, a fortress or walled town, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English take it from the Late Latin word,^[3][7] Merriam-Webster from Old English burg, also burh,^[8] and Collins from Old High German burg (“fortified town”).^[9] For the American sense, a town, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English point to German Burg (“castle, city”),^[3][7] and Green's Dictionary of Slang likewise to the Late Latin word by way of German.^[10] Etymonline, Barnhart and the American Heritage Dictionary take it instead from the many American place names ending in “-burg”, such as Harrisburg and Plattsburg,^[6][5][4] which go back through Middle English burgh (“town”) to the Old English word;^[4] Barnhart adds that it is ultimately a spelling alteration of that Middle English form,^[5] and Dictionary.com calls it a variant of burgh.^[11] The Germanic noun, meaning a hill fort or fortress, is also the source of Old Norse borg (“wall, castle”), Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌲𐍃 (baurgs, “city”), Old Frisian burch and Old Saxon burg,^[6][12][2] and Watkins derives it from Proto-Indo-European *bhergh- (“high”), with derivatives referring to hills and hill forts.^[6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A fortress or walled town of early and medieval times, used by historians to keep out the later senses of borough: 1753, in the Supplement to Chambers's Cyclopædia.^[2][8] Collins dates the sense "fortress" to the 18th century,^[9] and Dictionary.com the word to 1745–55.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) gave burg only as a cross-reference to burrow, in the sense of a borough.^[13] In the United States the word became a colloquial term for a town or city in the 1830s and 1840s;^[2][10][6] Merriam-Webster also records it for a small, out-of-the-way village.^[8] The OED notes that the American word is also spelled berg or burgh.^[2][10] In Scots, burg occurs in compounds such as burg-hall, town hall, and burg-town, a burgh town.^[14]

Timeline

• 1753 – an ancient or medieval fortress or walled town, in historians' use.^[2][8]
• 1843 – a town or city, in American colloquial use.^[2][5][6] Green's Dictionary of Slang has an earlier example, spelled burgh, from 1835.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) An ancient or medieval fortress or walled town.^[8][9][3][2]
2. (US, informal) A town or city: They left the old burg for the coast.^[9][8][2]
3. (US, informal) A small, unimportant village.^[8]

Related words

• burgage
• burgher
• burgomaster
• burgrave
• borough
• burgh
• burgess

Usage notes

In Australian and American underworld slang, burg is also short for burglary, recorded from 1983.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)