burgus

Forms

burgus m (genitive burgī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is certainly a borrowing, first attested in the early 2nd century AD, but its source is uncertain: Germanic ⟨*burg⟩ “fort”, Ancient Greek πύργος (púrgos, “tower”), or both.^[1] The OLD and Lewis & Short compare ⟨pýrgos⟩, and the TLL reports Much's view that the Greek source is more likely than Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌲𐍃 (baurgs, “city”), while Köbler and Georges take it as Germanic, from Proto-Indo-European ⟨*bʰerǵʰ-⟩ “to keep safe”.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first sources are inscriptions and Sidonius Apollinaris (about 431–486 AD).^[5]

Semantic evolution

It meant a castle, fort, as in Vegetius and Orosius, and Vegetius describes it as a small fort.^[2][6][7][3] Isidore uses it of a village or small town.^[7]

In Medieval Latin it meant a town, and its derivative burgēnsis “townsman” gave Old French borjois, English burgess about 1200 and French bourgeois.^[8] It survives in Italian borgo and Spanish burgo.^[1] Anglo-Latin burglātor gave English burglar in the 1540s.^[8]

Timeline

• early 2nd century AD – Inscriptions record it.^[1][5]
• c. 400 AD – Vegetius uses it of a small fort.^[6][5]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore uses it of a village.^[7][5]
• c. 1200 – English burgess is recorded.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A castle, fort.^[2]
2. (Late Latin) A small town, borough.^[7]

Word family

• burgārius
• burgēnsis

Related words

• English burgess
• English bourgeois
• English burglar

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com