burgh
/ˈbʌɹoʊ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.86 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
a small mound, often used in reference to tumuli (mostly restricted to place names).
noun
a borough or chartered town (now only used as an official subdivision in Scotland).
British usage
name
A topographical surname from Anglo-Norman for someone who lived in a fortified place.
Example Sentences
- "1815, William Wordsworth, The Excursion, Book Eighth, The Parsonage, lines 95-104, http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww405.html With fruitless pains / Might one like me 'now' visit many a tract / Which, in his youth, he trod, and trod again, / A lone pedestrian with a scanty freight, / Wished-for, or welcome, wheresoe'er he came— / Among the tenantry of thorpe and vill; / Or straggling burgh, of ancient charter proud, / And dignified by battlements and towers / Of some stern castle, mouldering on the brow / Of a green hill or bank of rugged stream."
- "This road leads to the burgh and castle of Harfang, where dwell the gentle giants."
Etymology
From Middle English borwe, borgh, burgh, buruh, from Old English burh, from Proto-West Germanic *burg, from Proto-Germanic *burgz (“city, stronghold”). Cf. Strasbourg. Cognate with Dutch burg, French bourg, German Burg, Persian برج (borj, “tower; battlement, fort”), Swedish borg. Doublet of borough, Brough, and Bury.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈbʌɹoʊ/
- British English: /ˈbʌɹə/
Usage
- British usage