casemate

From French casemate, from Italian casamatta, probably from casa (“house”) + matto, from matta (“mad, weak, feeble”), diminutive from the same source as English mate in checkmate.

casemate (plural casemates)

1. A bombproof chamber, usually of masonry, in which cannon may be placed, to be fired through embrasures; or one capable of being used as a magazine, or for quartering troops.
2. A hollow molding, chiefly in cornices.

• casemate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

From Italian casamatta.

• IPA^(key): /kaz.mat/

casemate f (plural casemates)

1. pillbox, blockhouse

• “casemate” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).