Walled

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Surrounded by a solid structure that confines or protects an area from external influences
2. Enclosed by a physical barrier designed to restrict access or provide security
3. Defined by a perimeter formed from rigid materials that limits entry and shields the interior from outside forces

Etymology: "Walled" is simply the past tense and past participle of "wall", so its history is the history of the verb and noun it comes from. The noun "wall" descends from Old English "weall", meaning a wall, dike, earthwork, rampart, or even a rocky cliff, and that Old English word goes back to Latin "vallum", a rampart or palisade. Latin's sense of defensive earthwork is the key to the word's oldest meaning: a wall was first a mound or fortification, not necessarily a built structure of stone or brick. The word is also tangled with a second, unrelated source. Old English "waw" or "wag" meant an interior wall or partition inside a house, and the two words appear to have merged in English, so the modern "wall" carries both the sense of an outer rampart and the sense of a dividing partition. The root of "wall" is also linked to the verb "wallow" and to the Dutch "wal", meaning embankment, which shows how closely the idea of a raised earthen bank was once tied to the word.

Synonyms: enclosed, surrounded

Antonyms: open