| 释义 |
barbican|ˈbɑːbɪkən|
Forms: 3– barbican; 3 barbycon, berbikan, 4 -can, barbygan, 4–6 -can(e, 5 barbakane, 5–7 -cane, 6 barbicane, 7 -con.
[a. F. barbacane, in 12th c. barbaquenne (= Pr., Sp. barbacana, Pg. barbacão, It. barbacane), of uncertain origin, perh. from Arab. or Pers.: barbār khānah is a possible Pers. combination, meaning ‘house on the wall,’ but examples of its actual use are wanting. Devic suggests Arab. barbakh canal or channel through which water flows, whence the sense ‘loop-hole’ might come. Littré gives as one sense in F., ‘ouverture longue et étroite pour l'écoulement des eaux,’ but sense 1 seems to be the earliest in OF. also. Col. Yule suggests Arab.-Pers. bāb-khānah ‘gate-house,’ the regular name in the east for a towered gateway; but it is not easy to derive from this the Romanic forms in bar-.]
1. An outer fortification or defence to a city or castle, esp. a double tower erected over a gate or bridge; often made strong and lofty, and serving as a watch-tower.
a1300W. de Biblesworth in Wright Voc. 130 Barbycons, antemuralia. a1300Cursor M. 10033 Þe berbikans [v.r. barbycans, -icans] seuen þat es a-bute, Þat standes thre bailles wit-vte..er þe seuen virtus. c1320Cast. Loue 697 Seue berbicans þer beoþ i-wrouht..And euerichon haþ ȝat and tour. 1494Fabyan vii. 363 The Erle..made bulwerkes and barbycanys atwene the Toure and the cytie. 1596Spenser F.Q. ii. ix. 25 Within the barbican a porter sate. 1633T. Stafford Pac. Hib. ii. (1821) 520 The Barbican whereof being a stone wall of sixteene foot in height. 1821Scott Kenilw. xxv, The usual entrance..over which he had erected a gate-house, or barbican.
fig.1828Scott F.M. Perth iv, Dawn seemed to abstain longer than usual from occupying her eastern barbican.
b. Retained as name of a street in London.
1632Massinger City Mad. ii. i, A Barbican broker will furnish me with outside. 1656Blount Glossogr. s.v., Hence Barbican by Red-cross-street in London.
†2. A temporary wooden tower or bulwark.
1489Caxton Faytes of A. ii. xiv. 118 Barbakanes of tymbre shal be made fast to the batelmentes. Ibid. xxxviii. 161 In the grettest vesselles of werre men make towris and barbacanes.
†3. A loophole in the wall of a castle or city, through which missiles might be discharged. Obs.
1600Holland Livy xxiv. xxxiv. 532 He caused certaine barbacanes or loopeholes, almost a cubit deep..to be pierced through the wals. |