wall
n.a solid structure made of brick, stone, or wood that encloses an area or supports a roof. You use walls to divide rooms or keep people out of a garden.
n.a continuous vertical structure of brick, stone, or other substantial material that serves to enclose, divide, or protect an area. Often functions as a load-bearing element in architecture or a defensive barrier in a landscape.
“He painted the bedroom wall a light shade of blue.”
“The garden is surrounded by a high stone wall to provide privacy from the busy street outside.”
“Ancient cities were often defined by their defensive walls, which served both as a physical barrier against invaders and a symbolic boundary of the community's legal jurisdiction.”
Commonly used with prepositions like 'against' (leaning against the wall) or 'on' (hanging on the wall).
Of various origins, principally from Old English wælisc etc. ("non-Germanic speaker, stranger") from Proto-Germanic walhaz (“foreigner, stranger”), the source of numerous other surnames such as Walsh and Wales and from Middle English wall, from Old English weall (“wall, dike, rampart”), from Proto-Germanic wallaz or wallą (“wall, rampart”), from Latin vallum (“wall, rampart, palisade”), from Proto-Indo-European wel- (“to turn, wind, roll”). Also from transcribed foreign surnames such as German Wahl and Swedish Wahlberg.
See wall.
Calque of Mandarin 壁宿 (Bìxiù).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.