castrum

Borrowed from Latin castrum. Doublet of Chester.

castrum (plural castra)

1. (historical) Among the Ancient Romans, a building or plot of land used as a military defensive position.

From Proto-Italic *kastrom, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱes- (“to cut, cut off, separate”) (Watkins, 1969). An older etymology (1899) derived castrum from Latin casa, and proposed an ultimate etymon from a Sanskrit root (sic) *skad-, "to cover". If directly from Proto-Indo-European *ḱ(e)stróm, cognate with Sanskrit शस्त्र (śastrám-, śástram-, “cutting tool, knife, weapon”).[1] See also castrō, careō.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkas.trum/, [ˈkäs̠t̪rʊ̃ˑ]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkas.trum/, [ˈkäst̪rum]

castrum n (genitive castrī); second declension

1. castle, fort, fortress
2. (chiefly plural) several soldiers' tents situated together; hence, a military camp, an encampment
   • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 5.9:

     Caesar exposito exercitu et loco castris idoneo capto […]

     Caesar, having disembarked his army and chosen a convenient place for the camp […]

Use in singular is rarer than that of castellum.

Second-declension noun (neuter).

• castellum
• castra

• → Albanian: -kastër
• → Aramaic: קַצְרָא‎ (qaṣrā) / ܩܰܨܪܳܐ‎ (qaṣrā)
  • → Arabic: قَصْر‎ (qaṣr)
    • Hijazi Arabic: قصر‎ (gaṣur)
    • → Old Catalan: alcacer
      • Catalan: alcàsser
    • → Old Portuguese: alcaçar, alcaçer
      • Galician: alcácer
      • Portuguese: alcácer
    • → Old Spanish: alcaçar, alcacer
      • Spanish: alcázar
        • → English: alcazar
        • → French: alcazar
        • → Polish: alkazar
    • → Persian: قصر‎ (qasr)
      • Tajik: қаср (qasr)
      • → Ottoman Turkish: قصر‎
        • Turkish: kasır
      • → Uzbek: qasr
    • → Italian: cassero, cassaro
    • → Sicilian: càssaru
    • → Swahili: kasri
• → Berber [languages?]: aɣasru, ɣasru
• → Byzantine Greek: κάστρον (kástron)
  • Greek: κάστρο n (kástro)
    • → Aromanian: castru
• → English: castrum
• → Hebrew: קְצָרָה‎ (qəṣārā)
• → Old English: ceaster
  • Middle English: Chestre
    • English: -caster, -cester, -chester, Chester
• Old Portuguese: castro, Castro
  • Galician: castro, Castro
  • Portuguese: castro, crasto, Castro
• Old Spanish: castro
  • Spanish: castro, Castro
• → Romanian: castru

• De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “castrum”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 97–98
• “castrum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “castrum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• castrum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• castrum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • veterans; experienced troops: qui magnum in castris usum habent
    
  • to disarm a person: armis (castris) exuere aliquem
    
  • to leave troops to guard the camp: praesidio castris milites relinquere
    
  • to mount guard in the camp: vigilias agere in castris (Verr. 4. 43)
    
  • to keep the troops in camp: copias castris continere
    
  • to remain inactive in camp: se (quietum) tenere castris
    
• “castrum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Pokorny, Julius (1959) Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 2, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 586