burgh

C2 Topic:General Vocabulary

US /ˈbʌɹoʊ/ UK /ˈbʌɹə/ See IPA manual

Freq #62246

Meanings

1

noun
a borough in Scotland

The burgh held a weekly market by royal charter.
2

noun
a borough or chartered town (now only used as an official subdivision in Scotland).

1815, William Wordsworth, The Excursion, Book Eighth, The Parsonage, lines 95-104, http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww405.html With fruitless pains / Might one like me 'now' visit many a tract / Which, in his youth, he trod, and trod again, / A lone pedestrian with a scanty freight, / Wished-for, or welcome, wheresoe'er he came— / Among the tenantry of thorpe and vill; / Or straggling burgh, of ancient charter proud, / And dignified by battlements and towers / Of some stern castle, mouldering on the brow / Of a green hill or bank of rugged stream.
3

noun
a small mound, often used in reference to tumuli (mostly restricted to place names).

The burgh held a weekly market by royal charter.

Thesaurus

Word family

Derived forms blythburghburghalburghboteburgherburghmoteedinburghedithburghmusselburghnewburghpetersburghpittsburgh

Simplified etymology

Burgh is the medieval Scots form of borough. Both descend from words meaning “fortress,” whose sense later expanded to “fortified town” and then “town” or “district.”

Etymology

From Middle English borwe, borgh, burgh, buruh, from Old English burh, from Proto-West Germanic *burg, from Proto-Germanic *burgz (“city, stronghold”). Cognate with Dutch burg, French bourg, German Burg, Persian برج (borj, “tower; battlement, fort”), Swedish borg. Doublet of borough, Brough, and Bury.

Topics

General Vocabulary

External links

# burgh

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈbʌɹoʊ/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈbʌɹə/
**Frequency rank:** 62246

## Meanings
1. a borough in Scotland
2. a borough or chartered town (now only used as an official subdivision in Scotland).
3. a small mound, often used in reference to tumuli (mostly restricted to place names).

## Examples
- The burgh held a weekly market by royal charter.
- 1815, William Wordsworth, The Excursion, Book Eighth, The Parsonage, lines 95-104, http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww405.html With fruitless pains / Might one like me 'now' visit many a tract / Which, in his youth, he trod, and trod again, / A lone pedestrian with a scanty freight, / Wished-for, or welcome, wheresoe'er he came— / Among the tenantry of thorpe and vill; / Or straggling burgh, of ancient charter proud, / And dignified by battlements and towers / Of some stern castle, mouldering on the brow / Of a green hill or bank of rugged stream.
- The burgh held a weekly market by royal charter.

## Derived Forms
- blythburgh
- burghal
- burghbote
- burgher
- burghmote
- edinburgh
- edithburgh
- musselburgh
- newburgh
- petersburgh
- pittsburgh

## Etymology
From Middle English borwe, borgh, burgh, buruh, from Old English burh, from Proto-West Germanic *burg, from Proto-Germanic *burgz (“city, stronghold”). Cognate with Dutch burg, French bourg, German Burg, Persian برج (borj, “tower; battlement, fort”), Swedish borg. Doublet of borough, Brough, and Bury.

## Topics
- General Vocabulary

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