Recent Examples on the WebThe sturdy, crenellated fortress, a symbol of might and power, was commissioned by the King after his conquest of Wales. Juliet Rieden, Town & Country, 28 Nov. 2019 The misty mountain ridges and the crenellated ramparts snaking along them as far as the eye could see were beautiful. Klara Glowczewska, Town & Country, 14 July 2017
Word History
Etymology
from past participle of crenellate "to furnish with crenellations," borrowed (with -ate entry 3 replacing -é) from French crenelé "having crenellations," going back to Old French quernelé, from crenel, quernel "crenellation" (from cren, cran "notch"—going back to Gallo-Romance *crēn- or *crĭn-, of uncertain origin— + -el, diminutive suffix) + -é-ee entry 1
Note: While French appears to have reflexes of a Romance masculine noun, a feminine noun is evident in Franco-Provençal, Sursilvan (Rhaeto-Romance dialect), and Upper Italian dialects. Französisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (2.2. pp. 1339-42) sees the noun as a derivative of a verb *crĭnare "to split," putatively from Gaulish; but the sole basis of this hypothesis is the Old Irish verb ara-chrin "(it) decays, fails, withers" (with an infixed neuter singular pronoun), the etymology of which is quite uncertain. If the base is *crin- "sift, shake, separate" (see Stefan Schumacher, Die Keltischen Primärverben, Innsbruck, 2004, pp. 420-22), there can be no connection with "split" or "notch." Pace Französisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, there is no verb crenare in the Reichenau Glosses.