belfry
pronunciation
How to pronounce belfry in British English:
UK [ˈbelfri]
How to pronounce belfry in American English:
US [ˈbɛlfri]
-
- Noun:
- a bell tower; usually stands alone unattached to a building
- a room (often at the top of a tower) where bells are hung
Word Origin
- belfry
- belfry: [13] Etymologically, belfry has nothing to do with bells; it was a chance similarity between the two words that led to belfry being used from the 15th century onwards for ‘bell-tower’. The original English form was berfrey, and it meant ‘movable seige-tower’. It came from Old French berfrei, which in turn was borrowed from a hypothetical Frankish *bergfrith, a compound whose two elements mean respectively ‘protect’ (English gets bargain, borough, borrow, and bury from the same root) and ‘peace, shelter’ (hence German friede ‘peace’); the underlying sense of the word is thus the rather tautological ‘protective shelter’.A tendency to break down the symmetry between the two rs in the word led in the 15th century to the formation of belfrey in both English and French (l is phonetically close to r), and at around the same time we find the first reference to it meaning ‘bell-tower’, in Promptorium parvulorum 1440, an early English-Latin dictionary: ‘Bellfray, campanarium’.=> affray, bargain, borrow, borough, bury, neighbour
- belfry (n.)
- c. 1400, "wooden siege tower on wheels" (late 13c. in Anglo-Latin with a sense "bell tower"), from Old North French berfroi "movable siege tower" (Modern French beffroi), from Middle High German bercfrit "protecting shelter," from Proto-Germanic compound *berg-frithu, literally "high place of security," or that which watches over peace." From bergen "to protect" (see bury) or *bergaz "mountain, high place" (see barrow (n.2)) + *frithu- "peace; personal security" (see affray). It came to be used for chime towers (mid-15c.), which at first often were detached from church buildings (as the Campanile on Plaza San Marco in Venice). Spelling altered by dissimilation or by association with bell (n.).
Example
- 1. The armada was led by a floating belfry followed by a gilded rowbarge powered by what looked like galley slaves , though they included the olympian sir steve redgrave .
- 2. I would know if there were any bats in the belfry .
- 3. The tower , with a square base , reminds us of a fort tower and it is not known whether it was a belfry , an observation tower , or both at the same time .
- 4. Not far from the place there is a tall belfry .
- 5. Later , one is called " stupid " hercules was in this zhong fang on belfry , then this bell calls big stupid clock .