| 释义 |
Martello|mɑːˈtɛləʊ|
[Corruption (through association with It. martello hammer) of the name of Cape Mortella in Corsica (from It. mortella wild myrtle), where there was a tower of this kind which the English fleet captured with some difficulty on 8 Feb. 1794; it had been captured by the English and again abandoned in Sept. 1793.
The tower was of a type common in the Mediterranean; the stout resistance which it was able to make with a small force led to a belief among English military experts that the construction had great defensive value, and the erection of ‘martello’ towers was therefore strongly urged on the British government, but it was not until 1804 that any were actually erected. Windham's account of the events of 1793–4 is grossly inaccurate, but there appears to be no room for doubt that he refers to these.]
Martello tower (also, rarely, 'martello): a small circular fort with massive walls, containing vaulted rooms for the garrison, and having on the top a platform for one or two guns; usually erected on a coast to prevent the landing of enemies.
[1794Lt.-Gen. Dundas Disp. 21 Feb. in Ann. Reg. App. to Chron. 101*/1 Expecting little opposition from Mortella tower. Ibid., The same day we began to batter the tower of Mortella.] 1803Windham Sp. 9 Dec. (1812) II. 140 What were known to our officers under the name of Martello Towers, a species of edifice so called from a memorable instance of one at Martello, in Corsica; where, by a tower of this sort, garrisoned by some ten or a dozen men, and mounted with about two guns, a ship of the line of ours, and a frigate, were, during the last war, completely foiled and driven off. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 470 A martello is built circular, and thus difficult to hit. 1883Black Shandon Bells xxvii, The wide water, the Martello tower.
fig.1828J. W. Croker Diary 11 Jan. in C. Papers (1884) I. xiii. 405, I..told him [Herries] that in quitting his finance he had surrendered his Martello-tower. 1848Lowell Biglow P. Poems 1890 II. 88, I esteem my ignorance of other languages as a kind of Martello-tower, in which I am safe from the furious bombardments of foreign garrulity. |