migdal

Borrowed from Hebrew מגדל‎ (“tower”)

migdal (plural migdals)

1. A fortified tower built in biblical times.
   • 1924, The Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research:

     If we leave the citadels of walled cities hitherto studied out of consideration, because of the fact that they are planned to meet other contingencies, we find only one group of migdals which has been examined, though inadequately — the fortresses in the Negeb, knowledge of which we owe to Woolley and Lawrence (PEF Annuall, III, pp. 41, 3).

   • 2002, Dr. Phillip Goble, The Orthodox Jewish Bible (Shofetim 9:51), →ISBN, page 243:

     But there "was a migdal oz within the Ir, and there fled all the anashim and nashim. and all ba'alei haIr, and locked it after them, and got them up to the top of the migdal.

   • 2005, William G. Dever, Did God Have a Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel, →ISBN:

     The building has been called a “migdal” (Hebrew “fortress”) temple because of its massive walls, up to fifteen feet thick; its two towers at the entrance; and its presumed second or even third stories.

   • 2014, Simcha Jacobovici & ‎Barrie Wilson, The Lost Gospel, →ISBN:

     Migdals or towers, part of temple precincts, were places of refuge.

Ultimately from Greek αμύγδαλο (amýgdalo).

migdal m (plural migdali)

1. almond (tree)

• migdală