bastide

[ba-steed]

noun

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.

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 of bastide

A single house outside the walls of a town was also called a bastide.
Cathedral Cities of France
Herbert 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 Tocqueville
Alexis De Tocqueville
The technical name for the small forts which the English gradually erected round Orleans is bastide.
Battles of English History
H. 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 II
Henry Charles Lea
(p. 244) Bastide, one of the staff, became Minister for Foreign Affairs.
An Englishman in Paris
Albert D. (Albert Dresden) Vandam