Aggers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Raised embankments or mounds made of earth or stone constructed to support or carry a road, railway, or aqueduct; earthworks created as defensive barriers in ancient or medieval fortifications; the natural or artificial ridge or elevation that forms the foundation of a raised structure
2. Structures composed of piled-up soil or stones forming elevated paths or foundations for transportation routes; man-made or natural ridges serving as protective fortifications in historical contexts; banks created to elevate or support linear constructions such as roads or water channels
3. Artificially built or naturally formed raised embankments used to carry or sustain roads, railways, or water conduits; earth mounds employed as defensive walls in historical military architecture; foundational ridges supporting infrastructure elevated above ground level

Etymology: "Aggers" is the plural of "agger", a word that entered English in Middle English meaning simply a heap or pile. Its Latin source, "agger", meant an earthwork, rubble, or rampart, and it was built from "ad", meaning toward, plus "gerere", meaning to carry. The image behind it is of material being carried and piled up toward a spot, which is why the sense of a raised bank of earth or stone came naturally. The Roman army made heavy use of such mounds. Earthworks of this kind were thrown up to support siege engines, to raise soldiers above defenders, and to form the core of defensive walls, so the Latin term became attached to military construction as much as to heaps of rubble. English kept the sense of a built-up mass of earth or stone, and the plural form is the one usually met in discussions of Roman fortifications and road or rail embankments.

Synonyms: mounds, ridges, embankments, barrows