[WGer. burg (whence late L. burgus), an earlier form of the word which has become borough in English.] Occasionally applied by historians to a fortress (BOROUGH 1) or a walled town (BOROUGH 2) of early and mediæval times, so as to exclude the later notions connected with burgh, borough. See BOROUGH 3. Also comb. burg-ward (see quot.)
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Burgward … in middle age writers, the same with bulwark…. The name is also extended to the town, and even the country about such a fortress.
1859. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), VII. lvi. 104. The fierce warriors of the north, Romans only in name … now fell without remorse on the burgs and colonies.
1864. Kingsley, Rom. & Teut., 219. The monk who guarded the relics of the saint within the walled burg.
1876. Morris, Sigurd, III. 172. And there is the burg of Brynhild, the white-walled house and long.
