Etymology

portcullis

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Today it means: A gate in the form of a grating which is lowered into place at the gateway of a castle, a fort, etc. Full definition →

Middle English portcolyse ← Old French porte colëice ← Latin colāre
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromcolāre
  2. Old French · derived fromporte colëice
  3. Middle English · inherited fromportcolyse
  4. English todayportcullis

From Middle English portcolyse, from Old French porte colëice, from porte (“door”) + feminine of colëiz (“sliding”), ultimately from Latin colāre.

Words from the same roots

Latincolāre all →

transcolate

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.