KEEP (corresponding to the

French

See also:

• DONJON (from a Late Lat. accusative form domnionem, connected with domnus or dominus, a lord)

donjon)  ,.in architecture the inmost and strongest part of a medieval castle, answering to the citadel of modern times . The arrangement is said to have originated with Gundulf, bishop of Rochester (d . 1ro8), architect of the White Tower . The Norman keep is generally a very massive square tower . There is generally a well in a medieval keep, ingeniously concealed in the thickness of a wall or in a pillar . The most celebrated keeps of Norman times in England are the White Tower in London, those at Rochester Arundel and Newcastle, Castle Hedingham, &c . When the keep was circular, as at Conisborough and Windsor, it was called a " shell-keep " (see CASTLE) . The verb " to keep," from which the noun with its particular meaning here treated was formed, appears in O.E. as cepan, of which the derivation is unknown; no words related to it are found in cognate languages . The earliest meaning (c. r000) appears to have been to lay hold of, to seize, from which its common uses of to guard, observe, retain possession of, have developed .