broch

See also: Broch and broc'h

English

Etymology

From Scots broch, from Old Norse borg, from Proto-Germanic *burgz. Doublet of borough and burgh.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹɒx/, /ˈbɹɒk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹɑx/, /ˈbɹɑk/
• Rhymes: -ɒx, -ɒk

Noun

broch (plural brochs)

1. (archaeology) A type of Iron Age stone tower with hollow double-layered walls found on Orkney, Shetland, in the Hebrides and parts of the Scottish mainland.
   • 1933, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Cloud Howe (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 268:

     Finella's carles builded the Kaimes, a long line of battlements under the hills, midway a tower that was older still, a broch from the days of the Pictish men […].

   • 1991, Diana Gabaldon, chapter 29, in Outlander, London: Random House:

     Ian's eyes rolled slowly up, as though following the rough stones of the broch upwards. 'That tower rises sixty feet from the ground,' he told me, 'and it's thirty feet in diameter, wi' three floors.'

Scots

Etymology

From Old Norse borg.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /brɔx/

Noun

broch (plural brochs)

1. broch
2. burgh, town

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Scots broch

Noun

broch m (plural broches)

1. broch

Welsh

Etymology

From Middle Welsh broch, from Proto-Brythonic *brox, from Proto-Celtic *brokkos.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /broːχ/
• Rhymes: -oːχ

Noun

broch m (plural brochod)

1. badger

Synonyms

• daearfochyn
• mochyn daear

Derived terms

• melfroch (“honey badger”)

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
broch	froch	mroch	unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.