different between citadel vs fastness

English

Etymology

From French citadelle, from Italian cittadella, diminutive of città (“city”), from Latin c?vit?s.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s?t?d?l/, /?s?t?d?l/

Noun

citadel (plural citadels)

1. A strong fortress that sits high above a city.
2. (sometimes figuratively) A stronghold or fortified place.
   • 1836, Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, The American in England (page 269)

     Intrenched within the citadel of our apartment, and cheered by the comfortings of a coal fire, we passed the day in letter-writing, conversation, or gazing from the sheltered security of our windows upon the agitated sea […]

3. An armoured portion of a warship, housing important equipment.
   • 2000, Lincoln P. Paine, Warships of the World to 1900

     Twenty-two of these — eleven per broadside — were on the main deck within a central citadel, essentially an armor-protected box in the middle of the ship. Also within the citadel were four 110-pdr. breech-loaders.

4. A Salvation Army meeting place.

Translations

Anagrams

• dactile, deltaic, dialect, edictal, lactide

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowe from Middle French citadelle, from Italian cittadella, diminutive of città (“city”), from Latin c?vit?s.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?si.ta??d?l/
• Hyphenation: ci?ta?del
• Rhymes: -?l

Noun

citadel f (plural citadellen or citadels, diminutive citadelletje n)

1. citadel

Anagrams

• dialect

English

Etymology

From Middle English fastnesse, festnesse (“firmness; certainty; stronghold; firmament”), from Old English fæstnes, fæstnis (“firmness; stronghold; firmament”), equivalent to fast +? -ness.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fæstn?s/, [?fæsn?s]
• (trap–bath split) IPA^(key): /?f??stn?s/, [?f??sn?s]

Noun

fastness (countable and uncountable, plural fastnesses)

1. A secure or fortified place; a stronghold, a fortress.
   • 1611, John Speed, The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of the Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans, London, Book 9, Chapter 9, p. 528,^[1]

     [...] if the Welsh compelled by famine ventred out of their strengthes or fastnesses, in or about Snowdon, the Garrison Souldiers of Gannocke were ready to intercept and kill them [...]

   • 1803, John Browne Cutting, “A Succinct History of Jamaica” in Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons, London: Longman and Rees, Volume 1, p. xxxviii,^[2]

     [...] the slaves that yet remained in the fastnesses of Jamaica, attached to the Spanish, and hostile to the English settlers, continued to be troublesome, and at times formidable.
2. The state of being fast.
   1. Firmness, security.
   2. Rapidity, swiftness.
3. The ability of a dye to withstand fading.

Derived terms

• colorfastness
• colour fastness, colourfastness

Translations

References

• “fastness”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.