castellum

American  

[ka-stel-uhm] / kæˈstɛl əm /

noun

Archaeology.

• castelli
  plural

1. a small isolated fortress, or one of a series of such fortresses, of the ancient Romans.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• castelli
  plural

Etymology

Origin of castellum

< Latin: fortified settlement, fortress < *casterlom < *castṛlom < *castrelom, equivalent to castr ( a ) (neuter plural) fortified camp + *-elom diminutive suffix; see -ule, -elle

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

castellum

Head first to 2,000-year-old Dom Square, where the Romans built the castellum Traiectum, a fort that became the city’s foundation.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 29, 2020

In the twenty years since—this was a project with many political moments, many waves—a western section has become an archeological museum, housed in a wooden reconstruction of a Roman castellum.

From The New Yorker ● May 16, 2016

It was not a camp, sir, a castrum, but a castellum, a little camp, or watch-station, to which was attached, on the peak of the adjacent hill, a beacon for transmitting alarms.

From Crotchet Castle by Thomas Love Peacock

Near the church is a mound, on which stood the "castellum."

From Seaward Sussex The South Downs from End to End by Edric Holmes

The Romans seldom or hardly ever chose a Celtic site for a new building, but, to quote Guest again, "generally built their castellum two or three miles from the British oppidum."

From Memorials of Old London Volume I by P. H. (Peter Hampson) Ditchfield