bastion means A projecting part of a rampart or other fortification. It carries an Arena rating of 1583, earned across 10 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, bastion ranks #853 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #2,111 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #2,363 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #2,965 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words.
bastion is pronounced /ˈbæsti.ən/.
Why “bastion” is a great word
A projecting part of a fortification, built to allow defensive fire along the wall's face, or, more broadly, any stronghold or person that defends particular principles. From French bastion, from Old French bastille ("fortress"), from Old Occitan bastir ("to build"), first attested in English in 1562. Unlike a "citadel," the innermost redoubt of a city, or a "bulwark," a barrier against an oncoming threat, a bastion is a salient angle from which to command the field—a place of active, outward defense. It is the stone prow jutting into a moat, the last quiet department preserving a dying language, the venerable club whose unaltered traditions are its only reason for being—a fortress not merely endured, but inhabited, from which a diminishing garrison surveys a changed world.
Etymology
First attested in 1562. From French bastion, from Old French bastille (“fortress”).
noun
- A projecting part of a rampart or other fortification.e.g.“[…] Fort Camosun had swelled herself from being a little Hudson's Bay Fort, inside a stockade with bastions at the corners, into being the little town of Victoria, and the capital of British Columbia.” — 1942, Emily Carr, “Beginnings”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC:
- A well-fortified position; a stronghold or citadel.
- A person, group, or thing, that strongly defends some principle.e.g.“a bastion of hope”
- Any large prominence; something that resembles a bastion in size and form.e.g.“[…] yonder cloud
That rises upward always higher,
And onward drags a labouring breast,
And topples round the dreary west,
A looming bastion fringed with fire.” — 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 24:
verb
- To furnish with a bastion.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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