Etymograph

English

burg

Burg comes from Late Latin burgus ‘a fort or castle, especially a smaller one’.

  1. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEburgus‘a fort or castle, especially a smaller one’
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1921burg

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEburgus‘a fort or castle, especially a smaller one’
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1921burg

Earliest quotation: 1921, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Efficiency Expert: “Tell mother that I will write her in a…”

The story

The historical sense is from Late Latin burgus, from Frankish *burg, from Proto-Germanic *burgz (‘borough, fortification’). Also compare burgess. The modern sense may have been formed in part by analogy with the many North American city names that are suffixed with -burg (a number of which in the Eastern United States once used -burgh instead.

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- ‘to be elevated, up high’

force, comfortable, fort, berry, barrow, brie, forcible, brahmin, brahmana, bergh, bourguignon, 24 more

through Proto-Germanic *burgz ‘borough, fortification’

borough, broch, 6 more

through Frankish *burg

bourgeois, 2 more

through Late Latin burgus ‘a fort or castle, especially a smaller one’

bourgeoisie, borgo, 3 more

Today it means

noun A city or town.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Late Latin burgus / burg

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