burgh

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

Noun

  1. a small mound, often used in reference to tumuli (mostly restricted to place names).
  2. 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,...
    • This road leads to the burgh and castle of Harfang, where dwell the gentle giants. - 1953, C. S. Lewis, chapter 6, in The Silver Chair, Collins, published 1998:

Origin

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

Forms

burghs

Derived

Blythburgh burghal burghbote burgher burghmote burgh of barony burgh of regality Edinburgh Edithburgh Musselburgh Newburgh parliamentary burgh Petersburgh Pittsburgh police burgh royal burgh