bastide
[ba-steed]
- a medieval fortified town, planned as a whole and built at one time, especially in southern France, for strategic or commercial purposes.
- a small country house in southern France.
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Origin of bastide
1515–25; < Middle French < Old Provençal bastida fortification, noun use of feminine past participle of bastir to build, equivalent to basti- (< Germanic; see baste1) + -da < Latin -ta feminine past participle suffix
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for bastide
Historical Examples
A single house outside the walls of a town was also called a bastide.
Cathedral Cities of FranceHerbert Marshall
Who would have thought that it was Bastide who should eventually induce the Assembly to make up its mind?
The Recollections of Alexis de TocquevilleAlexis De Tocqueville
The technical name for the small forts which the English gradually erected round Orleans is bastide.
Battles of English HistoryH. B. (Hereford Brooke) George
His farm or bastide was subjected to the same minuteness of seizure.
A History of The Inquisition of The Middle Ages; volume IIHenry Charles Lea
(p. 244) Bastide, one of the staff, became Minister for Foreign Affairs.
An Englishman in ParisAlbert D. (Albert Dresden) Vandam