Etymology

barbican

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Today it means: A tower at the entrance to a castle or fortified town. Full definition →

Old French barbacane
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The story

  1. Old French · derived frombarbacane
  2. English todaybarbican

From Old French barbacane, of uncertain origin: compare Arabic بَرْبَخ (barbaḵ, “aqueduct, sewer”), and Persian بابخانه (bâb-xâne, “gatehouse”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.