citadel

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French citadelle and its source borrowed from Italian cittadella,^[2][3][4][5] a diminutive of cittade (“city”), a variant of città,^[2][6][7][5] from Latin cīvitās (“city”).^[7][8][6][9] The OED records the French word from 1409, at first of the strongholds of Pisa and Milan, and the Italian one from before 1363.^[2] Merriam-Webster and Barnhart derive the English word from the French word alone,^[10][6] and Klein compares Spanish ciudadela.^[8] It is related to city and civic.^[7][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A stronghold within or close to a town, commanding and protecting it: 1542, in the State Papers of Henry VIII.^[2][10] Barnhart dates the word to before 1586,^[6] and Etymonline to the 1580s.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Partridge explains a citadel as a "little" city, the fortified core inside a town.^[12] From 1567 the word was used of any strong fortress,^[2] and before 1586, in Sidney's Astrophel and Stella, it was already used figuratively.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as a fortress or castle in a city.^[13] From 1775, in a speech by Burke, a citadel could be a place or institution where a belief or activity is firmly kept up.^[2] In the 19th century it was applied to the armoured central part of a warship (1860)^[2][10] and to the meeting halls of the Salvation Army (1879).^[2][14]

Timeline

• 1542 – a fortress commanding a town.^[2][10]
• 1567 – any strong fortress.^[2]
• before 1586 – figurative use, in Sidney.^[2][6]
• 1775 – a stronghold of a belief or activity.^[2]
• 1860 – the armoured central part of a warship.^[2]
• 1879 – a Salvation Army hall.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fortress that commands and protects a city.^[14][10][2]
2. Any strong fortress or place of safety; a stronghold or refuge.^[14][10]
3. A place or institution where a belief or way of life is firmly upheld: The village saw itself as a citadel of the old customs.^[2]
4. A specially strengthened part of a warship's hull.^[14][10][2]
5. A hall of the Salvation Army.^[14][2]

Related words

• city
• civic
• civil
• citizen

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
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. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins