bastide

American  

[ba-steed] / bæˈstid /

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.

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Etymology

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 baste ¹) + -da < Latin -ta feminine past participle suffix

Example Sentences

Looking from the Chateau de Notre Dame de la Garde, it would seem as if there was a bastide for every arpent.

From Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 2 by Randolph, Thomas Jefferson

Chromate of iron, near Gassin, in the department of Le Var, at the bastide of the cascade.

From Paris as It Was and as It Is by Blagdon, Francis W.

Not a few of them keep the name of La bastide, in combination with some other to this day.

From Two Summers in Guyenne by Barker, Edward Harrison

I was up with them through every night at this time; and it was an odd life in the little desolate bastide, as it was long impossible to procure help.

From Story of My Life, volumes 1-3 by Hare, Augustus J. C.

The name Castelsarrasin appears in the 13th century, when the village of Villelongue was replaced by the present bastide.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 4 "Carnegie Andrew" to "Casus Belli" by Various