Skip to content
ontologydriven
Sign out

Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

castellan en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • /ˈkæstələn/
  • /ˈkæstɪlən/
  • (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Middle English castelain, from Old French castelain (compare modern châtelain), from Latin castellanus (“pertaining to a castle, an occupant of a castle, or a governor of a castle”), from castellum castle, citadel, diminutive of castrum fortified place. See castle. By surface analysis, Old French castel + -an and castle + -an. Doublet of Castilian, castellano, castellanus, and chatelain /chatelaine.

Meanings

  1. (obsolete) A feudal lord with a fortified manor.
  2. (historical) The governor or caretaker entrusted to oversee a castle or keep for its lord.
    • The inferior secular senators are ninety-two, containing the ten crown-officers, and eighty-two castellans. The latter are again divided into thirty-three great castellans, and forty-nine little castellans. 1851, Luther Calvin Saxton, Fall of Poland, volume 2, Charles Scribner, page 442:
    • Castellans, often exercising control over a few villages and half a dozen small lordships, transformed their banal lordships into quasi-sovereign mini-states, independent of royal or comital sanction or control. 2003, Benno Teschke, The Myth of 1648: Class, Geopolitics, and the Making of Modern International Relations, Verso, page 86:
    • The wave of attacks on the castellans in 1511 followed faction-fighting in Udine, in which castellans and their families were massacred by supporters of the Savorgnan. 2015, Christine Shaw, Barons and Castellans: The Military Nobility of Renaissance Italy, Koninklijke Brill, page 47:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
castellans Number=Plur lexicographic

Deriveds

castellanship · castellate · castellany

Hypernyms

feudal lord (lord) · lord (lord) · lord of the manor (lord)

Synonyms

chatelain

Translations (37)

bg кастела́н (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · sl kastelan (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · sh kastèlān (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · ar حَاكِم قَلْعَة (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · fi linnanherra (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · ro castelan (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · da kastellan (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · et kastellaan (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · el πυργοδεσπότης (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · uk каштеля́н (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · it castellano (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · pl kasztelan (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · ca castellà (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · fr châtelain (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · cmn 城主 (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · cs kastelán (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · ca castlà (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · sq kështjellar (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · bg управи́тел на за́мък (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · es castellano (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · pt castelão (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · be кашталя́н (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · ko 성주 (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · el καστελάνος (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · fur cjastelan (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · de Kastellan (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · ru кастеля́н (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · nl kastelein (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · hu várnagy (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · mr कॅस्टेलन (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · sv kastellan (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · sh кастѐла̄н (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · sk kastelán (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · gl casteleiro (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · fa-ira حاکِمِ قَلْعِه (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · ja 城主 (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep) · ar حَاكِم قِلْعَة (governor or caretaker of a castle or keep)