broch

From Scots broch, from Old Norse borg, from Proto-Germanic *burgz. Doublet of borough and burgh.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹɒx/, /ˈbɹɒk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹɑx/, /ˈbɹɑk/
• Rhymes: -ɒx, -ɒk

broch (plural brochs)

1. (archaeology) A type of Iron Age stone tower with hollow double-layered walls found on Orkney, Shetland, in the Hebrides and parts of the Scottish mainland.

   Synonym: Pictish tower

   • 1933, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Cloud Howe (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 268:

     Finella's carles builded the Kaimes, a long line of battlements under the hills, midway a tower that was older still, a broch from the days of the Pictish men […].

   • 1972, George Mackay Brown, Greenvoe, Polygon, published 2019, page 20:

     The last man slid the bolt in the single low narrow door. The broch was impregnable then.

   • 1991, Diana Gabaldon, chapter 29, in Outlander, London: Random House:

     Ian's eyes rolled slowly up, as though following the rough stones of the broch upwards. 'That tower rises sixty feet from the ground,' he told me, 'and it's thirty feet in diameter, wi' three floors.'

From Old Norse borg.

• IPA^(key): /brɔx/

broch (plural brochs)

1. broch
2. burgh, town

Borrowed from Scots broch

broch m (plural broches)

1. broch

• IPA^(key): /broːχ/
• Rhymes: -oːχ

From Middle Welsh broch, from Proto-Brythonic *brox, from Proto-Celtic *brokkos.

broch m (plural brochod or brochion)

1. badger

• daearfochyn
• mochyn daear

• melfroch (“honey badger”)

Possibly an extension of etymology 1.

broch m (uncountable)

1. foam, froth

   Synonym: ewyn

2. anger, rage

   Synonyms: dicter, llid, cynddaredd

3. uproar, tumult

   Synonyms: twrw, cyffro

• brochus (“blustering, fuming”)

broch (feminine singular broch, plural broch, not comparable)

1. raging, fuming, chafing

   Synonyms: dig, llidiog, trystfawr

• D. G. Lewis, N. Lewis, editors (2005–present), “broch”, in Gweiadur: the Welsh–English Dictionary, Gwerin
• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke, et al., editors (1950–present), “broch”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies