Etymology

borstal

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Today it means: A way up a hill in the South Downs. Full definition →

Middle English *borstile ← Old English beorh
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The story

  1. Old English · inherited frombeorh“a hill”
  2. Middle English · inherited from*borstile
  3. English todayborstal

Inherited from Middle English *borstile, *borghstile, from Old English beorh (“a hill”) + stigel (“a stile”). The institutions are named after Borstal Prison in Borstal, Rochester, Kent, England.

Words from the same roots

Old Englishbeorh all →

bark

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.