burg

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The historical sense is from Late Latin burgus, from Frankish *burg, from Proto-Germanic *burgz (“borough, fortification”). Doublet of borough, Brough, burgh, burh, and bury. 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. See burgh), as well as being formed in part due to German Burg.

burg (plural burgs)

1. (Canada, US) A city or town.
   • 1921, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Efficiency Expert‎^[1], HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2012:

     Tell mother that I will write her in a day or two, probably from Chicago, as I have always had an idea that that was one burg where I could make good.

   • 2009 June, David Thriault, “This Way In: The Sound and the Fury”, in Esquire, volume 151, number 6, page 6:

     Imagine my surprise when I learned that he was not only a Canadian but lived in Ottawa, that icy burg I had left so many kilometers -- sorry, miles -- behind me.

   • 2010 Feb, Paige Orloff, “Big Style on a (Little) Budget”, in Country Living, volume 33, number 2, page 84:

     It's been said that Wilder modeled that fictional setting on Peterborough, a quaint burg tucked away in New Hampshire's verdant southwestern hills.

2. (historical) A fortified town in medieval Europe.

• burgher
• burghermaster
• burgomaster
• burgrave

burg (plural burgs)

1. (slang) burger
   • 2002, Ricard Marx Weinraub, Wonder Bread Hill, page 6:

     I hate this emptiness and the redundancy of eating burgs at Burger Town.

• grub

Possibly borrowed from Late Latin burgus (“fortress, watchtower”),^[1] perhaps ultimately from Proto-Germanic *burgz (“fortress”),^[2] or possibly borrowed from Ancient Greek πύργος (púrgos, “watchtower, fortress”),^[3] although this is difficult given the initial b- in Albanian.

• IPA^(key): [buɹɡ]

burg m (plural burgje, definite burgu, definite plural burgjet)

1. jail, prison

   Synonyms: hapsane f, haps m, quzë f, quar m

• Orel, Vladimir E. (1998) “burg”, in Albanian Etymological Dictionary, Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill, →ISBN, page 42
• Bardhi, Frang (1635) Dictionarium Latino Epiroticum (overall work in Latin and Albanian), page 10: “carcer — burgh”
• “burg”, in FGJSH: Fjalor i gjuhës shqipe [Dictionary of the Albanian language] (in Albanian), 2006
• FGJSSH: Fjalor i gjuhës së sotme shqipe [Dictionary of the modern Albanian language]‎^[2], 1980
• Newmark, L. (1999) “burg”, in Oxford Albanian-English Dictionary‎^[3]

Borrowed from Late Latin burgus, from Frankish *burg (“fortress”).

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈburk]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈbuɾk]

burg m (plural burgs)

1. (historical) a fortified settlement, fortress
2. (historical) the outskirts of a city, suburbs

   Synonym: ravals

• burgès

• burgesia
• burggravi
• burgmestre

• “burg”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

From Middle Dutch burch, from Old Dutch burg, from Proto-West Germanic *burg, from Proto-Germanic *burgz.

• IPA^(key): /bʏrx/

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• Hyphenation: burg
• Rhymes: -ʏrx

burg f (plural burgen, diminutive burgje n)

1. (archaic outside toponyms) synonym of burcht (“fortified place, fortress”)

burg m (genitive singular buirg, nominative plural buirg)

1. alternative form of buirg (“borough”)

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “burg”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959) “burg”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “burg”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2025

From Proto-West Germanic *burg, from Proto-Germanic *burgz.

burg f

1. fortress, castle
2. city

• Middle Dutch: borch, burch
  • Dutch: burg, burcht
    • Afrikaans: burg
  • Limburgish: bórg, börch

• “burg”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

• burh, burug

From Proto-Germanic *burgz.

• IPA^(key): /burɡ/, [burˠɣ]

burg f (nominative plural byrġ)

1. city or town
   • c. 897, King Alfred's translation of Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care

     Wyrċaþ fæsten ymb þā burg.

     Build a fortress around the city.

   • late 9th century, translation of Orosius’ History Against the Pagans

     Þæt Ēstland is swīðe miċel, and þǣr biþ swīðe manega byrġ, and on ǣlcre byrġ biþ cyning.

     Estonia is very large. There are a whole lot of towns, and every town has a king.

   • late 9th century, King Alfred's translation of St. Augustine's Soliloquies

     Nāt iċ nā þȳ hwā Rōme burg timbrede þe iċ hit self ġesāwe, ac for þȳ þe hit man mē sæġde.

     I don't know who built the city of Rome because I saw it myself, but because somebody told me.

   • c. 992, Ælfric, "The Assumption of the Blessed Mary"

     Sē Godes wiðersaca hine þā ġehāthierte and cwæþ, "Þā iċ fram fierde ġeċierre, iċ tōweorpe þās burg, and hīe ġesmēðe, and tō ierþlande āwende, swā þæt hēo biþ cornbǣru swīðor þonne manbǣru."

     The adversary of God became furious and said, "When I return from the campaign, I will destroy this city, and level it, and turn it into farmland, so it is full of grain instead of people."

2. fortified place: fortress, castle
   • c. 897, King Alfred's translation of Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care

     Sēo burg þæs mōdes sċeal swīðe oft ġefrēdan hire fēonda speru.

     The fortress of the mind must very often feel the spears of its enemies.

   • Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Manuscript A, year 921

     Þā fōr Ēadweard cyning mid Westseaxna fierde tō Colneċeastre and ġebētte þā burg and ġeednīewode þǣr hēo ǣr tōbrocen wæs.

     Then King Edward traveled to Colchester with the West Saxon army and repaired the fortress, and rebuilt it where it had been destroyed.

Strong consonant stem:

• (city, town): ċeaster
• (fortress, castle): fæsten

• Middle English: burgh
  • Scots: burch, burgh
  • English: borough, -borough, Brough, boro, burg, bur-, burgh, bury (as in borough, manor), -bury
• → English: burh (learned)

• purc

From Proto-West Germanic *burg, Proto-Germanic *burgz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- (“fortified elevation”).

burg f

1. a castle
2. a city

The original feminine consonant stem declension remained in use alongside the i-declension: gen. pl. burgo; dat. pl burgon, burgun; in all other cases.

• Middle High German: burc
  • German: Burg
  • Luxembourgish: Buerg

• Köbler, Gerhard, Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, (6. Auflage) 2014

• burh
• burug

From Proto-West Germanic *burg, Proto-Germanic *burgz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- (“fortified elevation”).

• IPA^(key): /burɣ/

burg f

1. fort, castle
   • 830 A.D. Heliand, verse 4187:

     imu thô an Effrem an theru hôhon burg uunode ― he then lived in the high fort of Effrem

2. city, town
   • (Can we date this quote?) Genesis, verse 238:

     bûan an them burugium ― to live in these cities

• Middle Low German: borch
  • Low German: Borg
    • German Low German: Börg, Borg, Bürg, Burg

• (Middle Polish) IPA^(key): /ˈburk/

burg m inan

1. (Middle Polish) alternative form of bruk

• Maria Renata Mayenowa, Stanisław Rospond, Witold Taszycki, Stefan Hrabec, Władysław Kuraszkiewicz (2010-2023) “burg”, in Słownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish]

Borrowed from French bourg.

burg n (plural burguri)

1. burg, market town