Search a title or topic

Over 20 million podcasts, powered by 

Player FM logo
Artwork

Content provided by Merriam-Webster. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Merriam-Webster or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://staging.podcastplayer.com/legal.
Player FM - Podcast App
Go offline with the Player FM app!

bastion

2:38
 
Share
 

Manage episode 484285894 series 1319408
Content provided by Merriam-Webster. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Merriam-Webster or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://staging.podcastplayer.com/legal.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 23, 2025 is:

bastion • \BAS-chun\ • noun

A bastion is a place or system in which something (such as an idea) is protected and continues to survive.

// The restaurant is a bastion of the region’s ancient culinary traditions.

See the entry >

Examples:

“In 2017, Harlem residents took to the streets to protest Keller Williams after the real estate company began marketing the neighborhood’s 15-block southern radius (between 110th Street and 125th Street) as ‘SoHa’ (South Harlem) without their approval. The biggest worry? That newcomers would attempt to erase Harlem’s history as a civil rights nexus and bastion of Black American culture. In response, then-New York Sen. Brian Benjamin introduced legislation that banned unsolicited name changes and fined real estate firms for using names like SoHa.” — Jake Kring-Schreifels, Spokeo, 26 Mar. 2025

Did you know?

Bastion today usually refers to a metaphorical fortress, a place where an idea, ethos, philosophy, culture, etc. is in some way protected and able to endure. But its oldest meaning concerned literal fortifications and strongholds. Bastion likely traces back to a verb, bastir, meaning “to build or weave,” from Old Occitan, a Romance language spoken in southern France from about 1100 to 1500. Bastir eventually led to bastia, an Italian word for a small quadrangular fortress, and from there bastione, referring to a part of a fortified structure—such as an outer wall—that juts or projects outward. Bastione became bastion in Middle French before entering English with the same meaning. You may be familiar with another bastir descendent, bastille, which refers generically to a prison or jail, but is best known as the name of the Parisian fortress-turned-prison stormed by an angry mob at the start of the French Revolution; the Bastille’s fall is commemorated in France by the national holiday Bastille Day.


  continue reading

3414 episodes

Artwork

bastion

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

3,905 subscribers

published

iconShare
 
Manage episode 484285894 series 1319408
Content provided by Merriam-Webster. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Merriam-Webster or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://staging.podcastplayer.com/legal.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 23, 2025 is:

bastion • \BAS-chun\ • noun

A bastion is a place or system in which something (such as an idea) is protected and continues to survive.

// The restaurant is a bastion of the region’s ancient culinary traditions.

See the entry >

Examples:

“In 2017, Harlem residents took to the streets to protest Keller Williams after the real estate company began marketing the neighborhood’s 15-block southern radius (between 110th Street and 125th Street) as ‘SoHa’ (South Harlem) without their approval. The biggest worry? That newcomers would attempt to erase Harlem’s history as a civil rights nexus and bastion of Black American culture. In response, then-New York Sen. Brian Benjamin introduced legislation that banned unsolicited name changes and fined real estate firms for using names like SoHa.” — Jake Kring-Schreifels, Spokeo, 26 Mar. 2025

Did you know?

Bastion today usually refers to a metaphorical fortress, a place where an idea, ethos, philosophy, culture, etc. is in some way protected and able to endure. But its oldest meaning concerned literal fortifications and strongholds. Bastion likely traces back to a verb, bastir, meaning “to build or weave,” from Old Occitan, a Romance language spoken in southern France from about 1100 to 1500. Bastir eventually led to bastia, an Italian word for a small quadrangular fortress, and from there bastione, referring to a part of a fortified structure—such as an outer wall—that juts or projects outward. Bastione became bastion in Middle French before entering English with the same meaning. You may be familiar with another bastir descendent, bastille, which refers generically to a prison or jail, but is best known as the name of the Parisian fortress-turned-prison stormed by an angry mob at the start of the French Revolution; the Bastille’s fall is commemorated in France by the national holiday Bastille Day.


  continue reading

3414 episodes

All episodes

×
 
Loading …

Welcome to Player FM!

Player FM is scanning the web for high-quality podcasts for you to enjoy right now. It's the best podcast app and works on Android, iPhone, and the web. Signup to sync subscriptions across devices.

 

Listen to this show while you explore
Play