Other forms: ramparts
A rampart is a broad defensive bank of earth or stone. The castle ramparts, walk the ramparts, behind the rampart.
It is wide enough to stand and fight on, which is what distinguishes it from a wall, and it is usually earth faced with stone. Iron Age hillforts in Britain are ringed with them and many survive as visible earthworks two thousand years on. Note that ramparts appear in the American national anthem, which is where most people meet the word.
1nounrampartA broad defensive bank of earth or stone.
“Soldiers patrolled the ramparts of the old fort, looking out to sea.”
rampart is a defensive bank.
French rempart comes from remparer, to fortify, from Latin ante plus parare, to prepare. Prepare, apparatus and parry come from the same preparing.
Vulgar Latin
*anteparō — to prepare
Old Occitan
amparer
Old French
remparer — to defend, fortify, inclose with a rampart
Middle French
rempart — rampart of a fort
English, today
rampart
Middle French rempart (“rampart of a fort”), from Old French remparer (“to defend, fortify, inclose with a rampart”), from re- + emparer, from Old Occitan amparer, from Vulgar Latin anteparō (“to prepare”), from ante- + parō.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA