burghal

burghal

English

Etymology

burgh +‎ -al

Adjective

burghal (not comparable)

1. (UK) Relating to a burgh or borough.
   • 1867, John Guthrie Smith, A Digest of the Law of Scotland Relating to the Poor, the Public Health, and Other Matters Managed by Parochial Boards, Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2nd edition, Introduction, p. 2,

     In Scotland, parishes are either burghal, i.e. those comprised wholly within a burgh royal; landward, those forming a rural district; or mixed, i.e. a burgh with a rural district attached.

   • 1930, John Buchan, Castle Gay, Chapter 13,

     There is a pleasant smell of cooking about, and a hum of compact and contented life. Add the excitement of an election, and you have that busy burghal hive which is the basis of all human society--a snug little commune intent on its own affairs, a world which for the moment owes allegiance to no other.

   • 1986, H. C. Darby, Domesday England, Cambridge University Press, Chapter 10, p. 290,

     It is true that Frome is not called a borough, nor are burgesses recorded for it, but the payment of the ‘third penny’ suggests burghal status […]

Usage notes

For England and Wales, the word is historical and corresponds to the medieval borough. For Scotland, it corresponds to the burgh.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for burghal in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)

Antonyms

• (Scotland) landward

Anagrams

• Bulghar