La Rochelle

Meanings

proper noun

A port city, the capital of Charente-Maritime department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France, on the Bay of Biscay, formerly in Poitou-Charentes.
1 more example
The ships would leave Europe in April, when there was a good easterly wind. Trans-Atlantic mariners wanted the wind dead on the stern, so they could run with it, sticking to the same latitude—a method called easting and westing. Columbus, Cabot, and many others had done this. […] If a ship left the harbor at La Rochelle, dropping below the two islands that protect that harbor, and then stuck to its latitude, it would make landfall at Cape Breton, where the French station of Louisbourg was established so that La Rochelle ships could easily find it.
1997, Mark Kurlansky, “Chapter 4: 1620: The Rock and the Cod”, in Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, Walker, →ISBN
A commune in Haute-Saône department, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France.
A locality in the Rural Municipality of De Salaberry, Manitoba, Canada.
A suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, named after the city in France.

Unadapted borrowing from French La Rochelle, from Old French rochelle (literally “little rock”).

More words from Old French

Arabic لا روشيل

Bulgarian Ла Рошел

French La Rochelle

German La Rochelle

Irish La Rochelle

Japanese ラ・ロシェル

Korean 라로셸

Latin Rūpella

Spanish La Rochelle, La Rochela

Cite this entry

APA

La Rochelle. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/La%20Rochelle

MLA

“La Rochelle.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/La%20Rochelle. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “La Rochelle,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/La%20Rochelle.