Garrison

How to spell garrison

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce garrison

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does garrison mean?

1. nounA body of troops stationed in a town or fort to defend it, or the building they occupy.
2. verbTo station troops in a place in order to defend it.

Garrison in a sentence

• noun

  The town kept a small garrison to guard the harbour.

• verb

  The general planned to garrison the border with two regiments.

• noun

  The old garrison on the hill is now a museum.

• verb

  Officials decided to garrison the captured fort at once.

Where does garrison come from?

Language of origin: French

Garrison came into English in the 1300s from the Old French word garison, which meant protection, defence, or a supply of provisions. That noun was built on the verb garir, meaning to defend, protect, or keep safe, a verb that French had itself absorbed from a Germanic source closely related to the root behind the modern word warn and the idea of guarding. In its earliest English use the word still carried the broad sense of safety or supplies, but by the late medieval period it narrowed to mean the body of troops kept in a fortified place to defend it, and then the fortified place itself. The double r and the single s are the spelling trap: writers often want to double the s, but the word keeps one s exactly as the older garison did. The same Germanic guarding sense survives in relatives such as guard and garment, words that all trace back to the idea of keeping something secure.

How the word is built

• garr- (from Old French garir: to defend, protect)
• -ison (noun-forming suffix indicating the action or result)