bastide

[ ba-steed ]

noun

1. a medieval fortified town, planned as a whole and built at one time, especially in southern France, for strategic or commercial purposes.
2. a small country house in southern France.

Word History and Origins

Origin of bastide¹

1515–25; < Middle French < Old Provençal bastida fortification, noun use of feminine past participle of bastir to build, equivalent to basti- (< Germanic; baste ¹ ) + -da < Latin -ta feminine past participle suffix

Example Sentences

The technical name for the small forts which the English gradually erected round Orleans is bastide.

From Project Gutenberg

I went to Monsieur Bastide, he who proposed the scheme for ten thousand livres a-year.

From Project Gutenberg

I am leaving this place in an hour, to occupy a country-house (bastide) about a mile away.

From Project Gutenberg

But as he was then a détenu at Clairvaux, Bastide and Littré filled the editorial chair during the interregnum.

From Project Gutenberg

In the middle of the plain we came to a small village called Bastide-Murat.

From Project Gutenberg