belfry

English

Etymology

From Middle English belfrey, bellfray, belfray, from Old French belfroi, berfroi, berfrey (changed to have an ⟨l⟩ by association with bell), from Middle High German bërcvrit or bërvrit (“defensive tower”) (modern German Bergfried), possibly via Late Latin berefredus, from Proto-Germanic *bergafriþuz. Doublet of bergfried.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɛlfɹi/, enPR: bĕlʹfrē

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛlfɹi

Noun

belfry (plural belfries)

1. (architecture) A tower or steeple typically containing bells, especially as part of a church.
   • 2023 August 31, William Meny & Paul Simms, “A Weekend at Morrigan Manor” (9:33 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows‎^[1], season 5, episode 9, spoken by The Guide (Kristen Schaal):

     “You know, this house does have a belfry filled with local bats. Maybe Laszlo went up there.” “Oh, so like my darling perverted husband, to sniff out the local bordello immediately upon arrival. [chuckles] Could you take me to the belfry?”

2. (architecture) A part of a large tower or steeple, specifically for containing bells.
   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[The Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     From the belfries far and near the funereal deathbell tolled unceasingly while all around the gloomy precincts rolled the ominous warning of a hundred muffled drums punctuated by the hollow booming of pieces of ordnance.

3. (dialectal) A shed.
4. (obsolete) A movable tower used in sieges.
5. (obsolete) An alarm-tower; a watchtower possibly containing an alarm-bell.

Derived terms

• belfried
• have bats in one's belfry, have bats in the belfry

Translations

tower or steeple specifically for containing bells, especially as part of a church

• Bulgarian: камбанария (kambanarija)
• Catalan: campanar (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鐘樓 / 钟楼 (zh) (zhōnglóu)

• Danish: klokketårn (da) n
• Dutch: klokkentoren (nl) m, belfort (nl) m
• Finnish: kellotorni (fi)
• French: beffroi (fr) m
• Friulian: cjampanîli, cjampanili, cjampanîl, cjampanil
• German: Glockenturm (de) m
• Greek: καμπαναριό (el) n (kampanarió), κωδωνοστάσιο (el) n (kodonostásio)
• Hungarian: harangtorony (hu)
• Irish: clogás m
• Istriot: canpaneîl, canpanèil
• Italian: campanile (it) m
• Japanese: 鐘楼 (ja) (しょうろう, shōrō)
• Macedonian: камбанарија (mk) f (kambanarija)
• Manx: claggys m, thie cluig m, shamyr chluig f
• Maori: pourewa pere
• Polish: dzwonnica (pl) f
• Portuguese: campanário (pt) m, torre sineira f
• Romansch: clutger m (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran), clucher m (Puter, Vallader)
• Russian: колоко́льня (ru) f (kolokólʹnja)
• Spanish: campanil, campanario (es), clochel m, espadaña (es) f
• Swedish: klocktorn (sv), klockstapel (sv) c
• Tagalog: batingawan
• Ukrainian: дзвіни́ця (uk) f (dzvinýcja)
• Venetan: canpanil, canpanile, canpanièl, canpaniłe
• Welsh: clochdy m

part of a large tower or steeple, specifically for containing bells

• Bulgarian: камбанария (kambanarija)
• Finnish: kellotorni (fi)
• German: Glockenstube (de) f
• Greek: κωδωνοστάσιο (el) n (kodonostásio)
• Hungarian: harangtorony (hu)
• Irish: clogás m
• Japanese: 鐘楼 (ja) (しょうろう, shōrō)
• Maori: pourewa pere
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: klokkerom n

  Nynorsk: klokkerom n

• Portuguese: campanário (pt) m
• Romansch: clutger m (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran), clucher m (Puter, Vallader)
• Spanish: campanario (es) m, espadaña (es) f, campanil m, clochel m
• Tagalog: batingawan

moveable tower used in sieges

• Bulgarian: обсадна кула (obsadna kula)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 攻城塔

• Finnish: piiritystorni
• French: beffroi (fr) m
• German: Belagerungsturm (de) m

watchtower containing an alarm-bell

• Bulgarian: наблюдателна кула (nabljudatelna kula)
• Dutch: belfort (nl) n
• Finnish: kellotorni (fi)
• French: beffroi (fr) m
• German: Bergfried (de) m

References

• Michael Quinion (2004) “Belfry”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, →ISBN.