curtain

Inherited from Middle English curtine, from Old French cortine, from Late Latin cōrtīna (“curtain”), a calque from Ancient Greek.

Captain Rense, beleagring the Citie of Errona for us, […] caused a forcible mine to be wrought under a great curtine of the walles […].

(fortifications) The flat area of wall which connects two bastions or towers; the main area of a fortified wall.

tiāroa

in a fortification the main area of a fortified wall.


tread

rise

antonym(s) of “horizontal part of a step”

From Middle English tred, from treden (“to tread”).

(fortification) The top of the banquette, on which soldiers stand to fire over the parapet.


mask

Borrowed from Middle French masque (“a covering to hide or protect the face”), from Italian maschera (“mask, disguise”), from (a byform of, see it for more) Medieval Latin masca, mascha, a borrowing of Proto-West Germanic *maskā from which English mesh is regularly inherited.
Replaced Old English grīma (“mask”), whence grime, and displaced non-native Middle English viser (“visor, mask”) borrowed from Old French viser, visier.
Compare also Hebrew מַסֵּכָה (masseiḥa).

蒙版

two-color bitmap used to create transparency in an image

(fortification) In a permanent fortification, a redoubt which protects the caponiere.

kaponieeria suojaava redutti

fortification: redoubt which protects the caponiere


flèche

Borrowed from French flèche. Compare fletch.

(military, fortification) An earthwork consisting of two berms forming an angle with an open gorge.


lice

→ Catalan: lliça

→ Italian: lizza

→ Portuguese: liça

→ Spanish: liza


trace

From Middle English trace, traas, from Old French trace (“an outline, track, trace”), from the verb (see below).

der

(fortification) The ground plan of a work or works.


fascine

The noun is borrowed from French fascine (“bundle of kindling; bundle of branches used to build defences, fill in ditches, etc.; logs arranged horizontally between piles on the banks of a watercourse as an erosion barrier”), from Old French faissine, from Latin fascīna (“bundle of sticks”), from fascis (“bundle of sticks, faggot, fascine; bundle, package; burden, load”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰask- (“band; bundle”)) + -īna (the nominative, vocative, or ablative feminine singular of -īnus (suffix forming nouns)).
The verb is derived from the noun.

der

Our forces being landed and ſtationed as I have already mentioned, ſet about erecting a faſchine battery to cannonade the principal fort of the enemy, and in ſomething more than three vveeks, it vvas ready to open.

1748, [Tobias Smollett], chapter XXXII, in The Adventures of Roderick Random. […], volume I, London: […] [William Strahan] for J[ohn] Osborn […], →OCLC, page 284:

Halberts differ very little from the bill, being like them conſtructed both for puſhing and cutting: a halbert conſiſts of three parts, the ſpear, or ſometimes a kind of ſvvord blade for puſhing, an ax, or hatchet for ſtriking and cutting, and a flook or hook for pulling down faſcines, in the attack of trenches, or temporary fortifications.

1786, Francis Grose, “Morris Pikes”, in A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, […], London: […] S. Hooper, […], →OCLC, pages 51–52:

Verily the man must feel as though he were in a dream; only a short time before, at a shoemaker's ordinary work, the knocking of his hammer mingling with the sighs of a sick wife, and now, fascine knife on hip, helmet on closely cropped head, officers' commands in ear, crowds of people, drums, music, and the shrill whistle of the locomotive!—to march far away to Bohemia; […]

1889, Cornelia McFadden, chapter V, in The Seamstress of Stettin, Cincinnati, Oh.: Curtis & Jennings; New York, N.Y.: Eaton & Mains, →OCLC, pages 141–142:

armoured fighting vehicle
armoured fighting vehicle

(specifically, military fortification) A similar bundle of sticks of wood or plastic pipes used for filling in ditches for armoured fighting vehicles to drive over, and for making parapets, raising batteries, and strengthening ramparts.

фашина

cylindrical bundle of small sticks of wood bound together, used for strengthening purposes; (military fortification) similar bundle of sticks of wood or plastic pipes used for filling in ditches for armoured fighting vehicles to drive over, and for making parapets, raising batteries, and strengthening ramparts


gorge

From Middle English gorge (“esophagus, gullet; throat; bird's crop; food in a hawk's crop; food or drink that has been eaten”), a borrowing from Old French gorge (“throat”) (modern French gorge (“throat; breast”)), from Vulgar Latin *gorga, *gurga, from Latin gurges (“eddy, whirlpool; gulf; sea”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- (“to devour, swallow; to eat”). The English word is cognate with Galician gorxa (“throat”), Italian gorga, gorgia (“gorge, ravine; (obsolete) throat”), Occitan gorga, gorja, Portuguese gorja (“gullet, throat; gorge”), Spanish gorja (“gullet, throat; gorge”). Doublet of gour.

cog

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-gorge.wav

Half Moon. An Outwork conſiſting of two Faces, which makes an Angle Salient, the Gorge whereof bends in like a Bow, or Creſcent, and were formerly us'd to cover the Point of a Baſtion, which diſtinguiſhes them from Ravelins, always plac'd before the Curtin; […]

1745, “Half Moon”, in An Introduction to the Art of Fortification. […], London: Printed for and sold by John Brindley, […], →OCLC, column 1:

Ramps lead from the gorges of the bastions down to these outlets into the main ditch. […] To keep open the communication between the bastions, a gallery between their gorges is made along the curtain wall.

1874, D[ennis] H[art] Mahan, “Modifications Proposed in the Bastioned System”, in J. B. Wheeler, editor, An Elementary Course of Permanent Fortification, for the Use of the Cadets of the U.S. Military Academy, revised edition, New York, N.Y.: John Wiley & Son, […], →OCLC, paragraph 236, page 127:

Construction on this massive fort was never completed. […] Only the foundations and a few tiers of stone were completed on the two gorge walls and the gorge bastion. At this point, a significant modification in design was made. […] In this way, the gorge of the fort was closed at minimum expense.

2018 June, John R. Weaver II, “New York City”, in A Legacy in Brick and Stone: American Coastal Defense Forts of the Third System, 1816–1867, 2nd edition, McLean, Va.: Redoubt Press, McGovern Publishing, →ISBN, page 164, column 1:

(architecture, military, fortification) The rearward side of an outwork, a bastion, or a fort, often open, or not protected against artillery; a narrow entry passage into the outwork of an enclosed fortification.


oblique flank

(fortifications) that part of the curtain whence the fire of the opposite bastion may be discovered.


dehors

(fortification) All sorts of outworks in general, at a distance from the main works; any advanced works for protection or cover.


gallery

From Middle English galery, gallerye, from Middle French galerie, gallerie, from Old French galerie, gallerie (“a long portico, a gallery”), from Medieval Latin galeria (“gallery”), of unknown origin. Perhaps an alteration of Latin galilea (“church porch”), probably from Latin Galilaea, Galilee, region of Israel. More at Galilee.

unk

unknown origin

the galleries of the fort

(fortification) A covered passage cut through the earth or masonry.


lines

(fortifications) Dispositions made to cover extended positions, and presenting a front in but one direction to an enemy.


barbette

→ Czech: barbeta

→ English: barbette
→ Irish: bairbéad

→ Portuguese: barbeta, barbete

→ Spanish: barbeta


ridge

ridges (plural)
rig (alternative dialectal)

From Middle English rigge, rygge, (also rig, ryg, rug), from Old English hryċġ (“back, spine, ridge, elevated surface”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrugi, from Proto-Germanic *hrugjaz (“back”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)krewk-, *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”).
Cognate with Scots rig (“back, spine, ridge”), North Frisian reg (“back”), West Frisian rêch (“back”), Dutch rug (“back, ridge”), German Rücken (“back, ridge”), Swedish rygg (“back, spine, ridge”), Icelandic hryggur (“spine”). Cognate to Albanian kërrus (“to bend one's back”) and kurriz (“back”).

inh

the British Guards lie down behind a ridge to avoid the shot and shell from the opposite heights

1853-1855, Joachim Hayward Stocqueler, The Life of Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington:

(fortifications) The highest portion of the glacis proceeding from the salient angle of the covered way.


lunette

Unadapted borrowing from French lunette, diminutive of lune (“moon”).

This Lunette, as we have seen, was confronted, and even in siege-form "approached", by a part of Canrobert's army [...].

1863, Alexander William Kinglake, The Invasion of the Crimea, volume VII, page 185:

In mid-December [...], the French succeeded in storming the half-ruined outwork of the St Laurent lunette and advancing to a position immediately beneath the walls with their breaching batteries.

2001, WG Sebald, translated by Anthea Bell, Austerlitz, Penguin, published 2011, page 21:

(fortifications) A field work consisting of two projecting faces forming a wedge each of which extends from one of two parallel flanks.


surtout

(fortifications) A raised portion of the parapet of a work at the angles, to protect from enfilade fire.


pan

(fortifications) The distance comprised between the angle of the epaule and the flanked angle.


saucisse

Borrowed from French saucisse (“sausage”). Doublet of sausage.

(fortification) A fascine of more than ordinary length.


réduit

(military, historical, fortifications) a fortified structure such as a citadel or a keep into which the defending troops can retreat when the outer defences are breached.

kavaljeeri

central or retired work within any other work


rouleau

(fortification) One of a bundle of fascines to cover besiegers.


moineau

(fortifications) A small flat bastion, raised in the middle of an overlong curtain.


moineau

Inherited from Old French moinel, equivalent to moine (because of its plumage) + -eau.

(fortifications) (type of) small bastion


coupure

It will be observed here, that the coupure is not cut through the scarp revetment of the face of the bastion, although it is necessary for it to go through the thickness of the parapet

1860, John Thomas Hyde, Elementary Principles of Fortification:

(fortification) A passage cut through the glacis to facilitate sallies by the besieged.


remblai

en-noun

remblai (countable and uncountable, plural remblais)

Borrowed from French remblai, from remblayer (“to fill up an excavation, to embank”).

(archaic, fortifications or mining) earth or materials made into an embankment after excavation.


palisado

palisado (plural palisados or palisadoes)

[T]he Eyelids are fortify'd vvith little ſtiffe briſtles as vvith Paliſadoes, againſt the aſſault of Flyes and Gnats, and ſuch like bold Animalcula.

1653, Henry More, “Unavoydable Arguments for Divine Providence Taken from the Accurate Structure of Mans Body, from the Passions of His Mind, and Fitnesse of the Whole Man to be an Inhabiter of the Universe”, in An Antidote against Atheisme, or An Appeal to the Natural Faculties of the Minde of Man, whether There Be Not a God, London: […] Roger Daniel, […], →OCLC, book II, page 94:

(fortification) Obsolete form of palisade.


palisado

en-verb

palisado (third-person singular simple present palisadoes, present participle palisadoing, simple past and past participle palisadoed)

palisadoes (present singular third-person)
palisadoing (participle present)
palisadoed (participle past)
palisadoed (past)

He provided a table sixty feet in diameter, upon which I was to act my part, and palisadoed it round three feet from the edge, and as many high, to prevent my falling over.

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag):

The sea breaks upon this coast against a palisadoed fence of rocks and cliffs, around which swarm flocks of polar birds with cries and screams.

At Chaco they had a little earthen fort, with a small ditch palisadoed round it, and a few old honeycombed guns without carriages, and which do not defend the harbour in the least.

1816, Robert Kerr, A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17:


hersillon

(historical, fortification) A beam with projecting spikes, used to make a breach impassable.


counterguard

(fortification) A low outwork before a bastion or ravelin, consisting of two lines of rampart parallel to the faces of the bastion, and protecting them from a breaching fire.


ramshorn

(fortifications) A low semicircular work situated in and commanding a ditch.


star fort

(fortifications) A fort surrounded on the exterior with projecting angles.


tower bastion

(fortifications) A bastion of masonry, often with chambers beneath it, built at an angle of the interior polygon of some works.


interior crest

(fortifications) The highest line of the parapet.


flecho

Borrowed from French flèche, Italian freccia, Spanish flecha.

io-bor

(military, fortification) bonnet, flèche, simple redan


schietgat

nl-noun

schietgat n (plural schietgaten, diminutive schietgaatje n)

schietgaten (plural)
schietgaatje (diminutive neuter)

(architecture, fortification) loophole, embrasure


demidistance

(fortifications, historical) The distance between the outward polygons and the flank.


kurtyna

kurtynka (diminutive)
kurtyna (nominative singular)
kurtyny (nominative plural)
kurtyny (genitive singular)
kurtyn (genitive plural)
kurtynie (dative singular)
kurtynom (dative plural)
kurtynę (accusative singular)
kurtyny (accusative plural)
kurtyną (instrumental singular)
kurtynami (instrumental plural)
kurtynie (locative singular)
kurtynach (locative plural)
kurtyno (singular vocative)
kurtyny (plural vocative)

(fortifications) curtain (flat area of wall which connects two bastions or towers)


odsadzka

odsadzka (nominative singular)
odsadzki (nominative plural)
odsadzki (genitive singular)
odsadzek (genitive plural)
odsadzce (dative singular)
odsadzkom (dative plural)
odsadzkę (accusative singular)
odsadzki (accusative plural)
odsadzką (instrumental singular)
odsadzkami (instrumental plural)
odsadzce (locative singular)
odsadzkach (locative plural)
odsadzko (singular vocative)
odsadzki (plural vocative)


main guard

[A]fter an obstinate engagement, in which divers wounds were given and received, every soul of them was taken, and conveyed to the main-guard, where the commanding officer […] set them all at liberty […].

1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:

(fortification) The keep of a castle; a guardhouse or building in a fortress where such a body of troops is lodged.