Other forms: barbicans
A barbican is the fortified gatehouse guarding a castle entrance. Through the barbican, the barbican gate, defend the barbican.
The gate is always the weakest part of a wall, so the barbican is an outwork forcing attackers into a killing ground before they reach it. The London arts centre takes its name from one that stood on the site.
1nounbarbicanThe fortified gatehouse guarding a castle entrance.
“Attackers had to fight their way through the barbican before they even reached the main gate.”
barbican is a gatehouse.
Old French barbacane names the outwork, of uncertain origin, perhaps from Persian or Arabic.
Old French
barbacane
English, today
barbican
From Old French barbacane, of uncertain origin: compare Arabic بَرْبَخ (“aqueduct, sewer”), and Persian بابخانه (“gatehouse”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire