Other forms: strongholds
A stronghold is a place strongly held and hard to take. A mountain stronghold, the party's stronghold, a rebel stronghold.
The political use is now the commonest — a safe seat is a stronghold — and it carries the military image of a place that cannot be taken. In conservation a stronghold is the last area where a species is doing well. Note the compound of strong and hold.
1nounstrongholdA place strongly held and hard to take.
“The rebels retreated to their mountain stronghold, where the army could not reach them.”
stronghold is a fortified place.
Strong plus hold, in the old sense of a fortified place. The compound is Middle English.
Proto-Indo-European
*strengʰ- — stiff, tight
Old English
strang
Middle English
stranghalde,strong-hold,strong-holde
English, today
stronghold
Built from
From Middle English stranghalde,strong-hold,strong-holde, from strong (“having physical strength, sturdy, strong; built to withstand assaults, fortified”) (from Old English strang, strong (“strong”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European strengʰ- (“stiff, tight”)) + hōld (“grasp, grip; control, possession, rule”) (from Old English -). by surface analysis, en + strong + hold.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA