testudo

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun a movable protective covering that provided protection from above; used by Roman troops when approaching the walls of a besieged fortification
noun type genus of the Testudinidae

Unadapted borrowing from Latin testūdō (“tortoise, turtle, lyre, type of military shelter”).

Genius, scattered in the masses, repressed in every quarter under feudalism as under a testudo of brazen bucklers, finding no issue except in the direction of architecture,—gushed forth through that art, and its Iliads assumed the form of cathedrals. — Notre-Dame de Paris, Victor Hugo
As the testudo, as it was called in those days, advanced towards the castle, the machines upon the walls--catapults, mangonels, and arbalasts--poured forth showers of stones and darts upon it, breaking up the array of shields and killing many; and as these openings were made, the archers, seizing their time, poured in volleys of arrows. — Winning His Spurs: A Tale of the Crusades, G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
As the testudo, as it was called in those days, advanced toward the castle, the machines upon the walls--catapults, mangonels and arbalasts--poured forth showers of stones and darts upon it, breaking up the array of shields and killing many; and as these openings were made, the archers, seizing their time, poured in volleys of arrows. — The Boy Knight: A Tale of the Crusades, G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

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