Touret

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small tower or turret projecting from the wall of a castle or building, often set on a corner to house a stair
2. A little turret jutting out from a larger structure, typically built as a lookout or to hold a spiral staircase
3. A miniature turret attached to the outer face of a fortified wall, usually rising above the roofline of a building

Etymology: In English, "touret" is a rare and specialised term, used mainly in architecture and heraldry for a small turret. It comes from French, where "touret" is a diminutive of "tour", meaning "tower". The suffix "-et" makes the small version, so the word literally means "little tower." It is a close cousin of "turret", which came into English from Old French "tourete", another diminutive of "tour" and so a doublet of "touret". The two forms took slightly different routes into English, and "turret" became the everyday word while "touret" stayed largely confined to specialist use. Both trace back to Latin "turris", "tower", which English also inherited through French in words such as "tower" itself.