words wholly unrelated

bell & belfry

although a belfry is the place that houses a bell, the two words are not directly related. bell comes the old english word belle which had the same meaning. belfry comes from the middle german word bercfrit. originally the word meant “protecting tower” and described a movable-tower used by besiegers and besieged. it then was used to describe a tower to protect watchmen, then a watchtower itself, then a beacon-tower, then an alarm-bell tower, then a bell-tower and ultimately—the place where the bell is hung.

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with my previous post on cloche hats, today has become—quite by accident—bell day here at the ragbag.