haunch

haunches (plural)
haunce (alternative)
haunse (alternative)
hanch (alternative)
hance (alternative)
hanse (alternative)

From Middle English haunche, hanche, from Old French hanche, hance, anche (compare French hanche, Italian anca), from a Germanic source, probably Frankish *ankijā, from Proto-Germanic *ankijǭ (“joint; ankle”), from Proto-Indo-European *ang- (“joint; lith”). Cognate with Old High German ancha, encha, einka (“the leg; joint, bend”) (compare Old High German anchila, enchila (“ankle”), German Hanke (“haunch”), West Frisian hancke (“haunch”). More at ankle.

der

(architecture) A squat vertical support structure.


haunch

en-verb

haunch (third-person singular simple present haunches, present participle haunching, simple past and past participle haunched)

haunches (present singular third-person)
haunching (participle present)
haunched (participle past)
haunched (past)
haunce (alternative)
haunse (alternative)
hanch (alternative)
hance (alternative)
hanse (alternative)

(transitive, architecture) To provide with a haunch or supporting structure.


gadroon

From French godron, from Middle French goderon, from a form of godet (“vase with wavy edges”) + -(e)ron, from Dutch kodde (“piece of cylindrical wood”). Also probably related to goder (“to pucker”).


ashlar

en-noun

ashlar (countable and uncountable, plural ashlars)

From Middle English assheler, acheler, etc., from forms of Old French esselier (“wooden support, traverse beam”), from Medieval Latin ascelāris and assellāris (equivalent to a diminutive of early forms of ais (“plank”)), variant of *axillāris (attested only after the Renaissance), from Latin axilla (“little plank”) + -āris (“-ary: forming adjectives”), from axis (“axle, plank”) + -illa (“-ella: forming diminutives”).

carreuada

well-finished masonry creating an effect similar to well-done wooden flooring

The four main spans across the waterway are carried on ashlar piers founded on Memel timber piles.

1949 November and December, “Notes and News: The High Level Bridge, Newcastle”, in Railway Magazine, page 407:

Even as I babbled, Jock's massy frame filled the doorway, his ill-hewn ashlar head weaving from side to side, eyes blinking at the light.

1973, Kyril Bonfiglioli, Don't Point That Thing at Me, Penguin, published 2001, page 108:

By the Augustan period, however, the old ashlar circuit with its earthen agger was beginning to be dismantled in some places.

2012, Seth G. Bernard, “Continuing the Deabte on Rome's Earliest Circuit Walls”, in Papers of the British School at Rome, number 80, page 2:

The building, in a plain Tudor Gothic style, has a central door in chamfered ashlar surround.

2024 March 6, Dr Joseph Brennan, “England's booking offices of distinction”, in RAIL, number 1004, page 59:

(architecture) Masonry employing flat and well-squared stone or brick, creating an appearance similar to wooden flooring.

And from the choir itself, where the big hoist was working, came the shouts of the men sweating at the great wheel that swung the cut stones skyward, and the men high overhead on the hurdle-walks, waiting to receive the swinging ashlars and guide them into place.

1970, Rosemary Sutcliff, The Witch`s Brat, Red Fox, published 1990, page 83:

(architecture) Stone hewn and finished to create such masonry, either completely or as a facade over an earthen or rubble core.

дя́лан ка́мък

well-finished stone intended for such work


pediment

From the earlier form peremint, perhaps a dialectal alteration of pyramid, under the influence of -ment.

Passing the Congregation Shearith Israel on Central Park West (a white whale of a building with a triangular pediment supported by four count ’em four massive Corinthian columns), Professor Solanka scurrying through the downpour remembered the newly bat-mitzvahed thirteen-year-old girl he’d glimpsed through the side door, […]

2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 5:

(architecture) A classical architectural element consisting of a triangular section or gable found above the horizontal superstructure (entablature) which lies immediately upon the columns; fronton.


filleting

(architecture) The protecting of a joint, as between roof and parapet wall, with mortar or cement, where flashing is employed in better work.


galilee

From late Middle English galilie, from Old French galilee, from Medieval Latin galilaea, from Latin Galilaea (“Galilee”). Possibly the allusion is to Galilee being an outlying region of Biblical Palestine.

(architecture) A narthex, particularly in the United Kingdom and the Church of England; a vestibule, a fully-enclosed yet porch-like structure, leading to the main body of an English ecclesiastical building.


gingerbread

en-noun

gingerbread (countable and uncountable, plural gingerbreads)

gingerbreads (plural)
gingebred (alternative Scotland)

/ˈd͡ʒɪn.(d͡)ʒəˌbɹɛd/

/ˈd͡ʒɪn.d͡ʒɚˌbɹɛd/

From Middle English gyngebred, gyngebrede, from Old French gingembras, gingimbrat (“preserved ginger”), from Medieval Latin *gingimbrātus (“gingered”, presumably referring to ginger that perhaps had a pharmaceutical use for some medicinal preparation), with the intrusive m added to gingiber, from Latin zingiber (“ginger”), of earlier Sanskrit origin, through Ancient Greek ζιγγίβερις (zingíberis). The third syllable was earlier confounded with bread, and the insertion of an r in the second syllable completed the semblance of a compound word: ginger + bread.

der

For a time modern architects took a starkly functional approach to the design of houses, emphasizing clean, uncluttered lines and rejecting most forms of wall ornamentation as dust-catching gingerbread.

1980, Robert M. Jones, editor, Walls and Ceilings, Time-Life Books, →ISBN, page 37:

(architecture) A flamboyant Victorian-era architectural style.


cornice

From Middle French corniche or Italian cornice, from Latin cornīx (“crow”).

(architecture) A horizontal architectural element of a building, projecting forward from the main walls, originally used as a means of directing rainwater away from the building's walls.


foursquare

en-noun

foursquare (countable and uncountable, plural foursquares)

From Middle English foure square; equivalent to four + square.

(countable, architecture, US) A boxy style of domestic architecture with four rooms to a floor, one of which is usually a stair hall.


tailing

[…]iron Bar forming a Tailing for the stones which lie in the doorways

1813, Benjamin Dean Wyatt, Observations on the Design for the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane:

(architecture) The part of a projecting stone or brick inserted in a wall.


porte cochère

porte cochère (plural porte cochères or portes cochères)

porte cochères (plural)
portes cochères (plural)
porte-cochère (alternative)
porte-cochere (alternative)
porte cochere (alternative)

/ˌpɔːt kə(ʊ)ˈʃɛə/

/ˌpɔɹt koʊˈʃɛɚ/

Unadapted borrowing from French porte cochère (literally “coach gateway”): porte (“door; gateway”) (ultimately from Latin porta (“door; entrance; gate; passage”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to go through; to carry forth, fare”)) + cochère (from coche (“stagecoach”) + -ière (feminine form of -ier (suffix forming the names of occupations, etc.)). Coche is ultimately from Hungarian kocsi (“cart; horse carriage”), from Kocs, a village in Hungary known for making carriages.

der

We had admirable Noſes to ſmell out proper Places, and your Houſes with Porte-Cocheres were ſure to have enough of our Company.

1708, Mateo Aleman, chapter III, in [anonymous], transl., The Life of Guzman d’Alfarache: Or, The Spanish Rogue. […], volume I, London: […] R. Bonwick, […], →OCLC, part I, book III, page 400:

[M]oſt of the Houſes having Porte-Cocheres, and Court-yards, for the Conveniency and the Uſe of the Families.

1724 April 17 (Gregorian calendar), [John Macky], “Letter I”, in A Journey through the Austrian Netherlands. […], London: […] J. Pemberton, […], and J. Hooke, […], published 1725, →OCLC, page 4:

As this Place [Kensington Palace] opens to the Weſt, there are Two great Wings build, for receiving ſuch as neceſſarily attend the Court, and a large Port-cocher at the Entrance, with a Poſtern, and a Stone Gallery, on the South-ſide of the Court, which leads to the great Stair-caſe.

1742, [Daniel Defoe], “Letter III. Containing a Description of Part of Middlesex; and of the Whole County of Hertford.”, in A Tour thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britain. […], 3rd edition, volume II, London: […] J[ohn] Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 160:

I at first perceived, at the exterior, only a long wall, in the center of which was a porte cochère. Not far from this door stood a vehicle drawn by two superb horses. […] Under the influence of this increased interest and curiosity, I knocked at the porte cochère, which was opened. Not perceiving any porter's lodge, I advanced towards a lofty square pavilion, which was situated between the yard and the garden.

1846, Eugene Süe, “Regina”, in Martin the Foundling; or, The Memoirs of a Valet de Chambre, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 246, column 1:

The whole domain is shut up from the street by a great porte-cochère, or portal, calculated for the admission of carriages. This consists of two massy folding doors, that swing heavily opn upon a spacious entrance, passing under the front of the edifice into the court-yard.

1855, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “[Sketches in Paris in 1825: From the Travelling Note-book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.] The Parisian Hotel.”, in Wolfert’s Roost and Other Papers, […], New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam & Co., […], →OCLC, page 193:

That distinguishing feature of the street-architecture of Paris—the porte cochère—has its prototype still in the City of London, though it is almost as seldom met with now as the pointed gable, the latticed window, or the overhanging story of a much earlier period. […] But exceptions to the rule may yet be found, and here and there the curious seeker may stumble, even at the present hour, upon a genuine porte cochère.

1857, Dudley Costello, “The Millionaire of Mincing Lane. A Tale of the Times.”, in Bentley’s Miscellany, volume XLI, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, chapter I (The Richest Heiress in England), page 5:

The Vaugirard Cemetery was an exception among the cemeteries of Paris. It had its peculiar usages, so far that it had its porte-cochère, and its small door which, in the quarter, old people, tenacious of old words, called the cavalier door, and the pedestrian door.

1862, Victor Hugo, “It is Not Enough to be a Drunkard to be Immortal”, in Cha[rle]s E[dwin] Wilbour, transl., Les Misérables. Cosette. […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: [George W.] Carleton, publisher, […], →OCLC, book 8 (Cemeteries Take What is Given Them), page 150, column 1:

[T]he feature of the large porte-cochère or carriage doorway is certainly sufficient in itself, were there no other dissimilarities, to attract even the most unobservant eye. […] The fact, however, of the porte-cochère taking up so much of the ground-floor is often most ingeniously compensated by making the space to the right or left of the doorway, as the case may be, into an excellent shop. […] [T]he yard at the back into which the porte-cochère opens has planned around it the stables and coach-house, an admirable arrangement of which we have more than once spoken in these columns.

1883 June 9, “Portes-Cochères”, in George Godwin, editor, The Builder: An Illustrated Weekly Magazine for the Architect, Engineer, Archæologist, Constructor, Sanitary Reformer, and Art-lover, volume XLIV, number 2105, Great Queen St. London, W.C.: Wyman & Sons, →OCLC, page 763, columns 1 and 3:

The "chivalry of the Portes Cochères" la cavalerie des portes cochères, was the army raised by an act of parliament obliging each porte cochère (the house-door or gate at which carriages enter) to furnish a man and a horse.

1895, George Rice Carpenter, “The Adventure of My Uncle”, in Washington Irving, Washington Irving’s Tales of a Traveller: […] (Longmans’ English Classics; no. 1), New York, N.Y., London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, footnote 2, page 27:

The porte-cochère, so-called, is but a narrow doorway, and is actually situated in the Rue St. Germain l'Auxerrois. […] The porte-cochère of his former lodging-house was not yet open; he took up his stand close beside it.

1913, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “Of That There Could Be No Question”, in Eldorado: An Adventure of the Scarlet Pimpernel, London: Hodder & Stoughton; New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC, part I, page 210:

[L]opsided buildings, shabby structures, large moldy portes cochères, fences that enclosed plots of wasteland with the disquieting paleness of stone at night, […]

1992, Philippe Hamon, “Characters Exposed”, in Katia Sainson-Frank, Lisa Maguire, transl., Expositions: Literature and Architecture in Nineteenth-century France (The New Historicism; 20), Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif, London: University of California Press, →ISBN, part II (Texts and Their Monuments), page 168:

But it is also a world repopulated by fantastical creatures, camped behind all the shopfronts or lurking behind all the portes cochères; by new divinities from the earth and the underworld.

2011, Jacques Rancière, “The Politics of Literature”, in Julie Rose, transl., The Politics of Literature, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Malden, Mass.: Polity Press, →ISBN, part I (Hypotheses), pages 19–20:

(historical) A gateway through which horse carriages pass, often into a courtyard.

porta cotxera

This killing of two birds with one stone, making a porte-cochère and a second-story balcony at the same time, was so attractive to Mrs. Smith that it turned the scale in favour of a change. Her stable and carriage-drive were removed to the other side of the house, and Mrs. John rejoiced as an apparent joint-proprietor of the admired summer-house.

1883 August 15, R. C. Gardner, “All Out-doors.—VI.”, in Albion W[inegar] Tourgée, editor, The Continent: An Illustrated Weekly Magazine, volume IV, number 7 (number 79 overall), Philadelphia, Pa.: Our Continent Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 208, column 2:

But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, […] By the time we reached the house we were thanking our stars she had come. Mrs. Cooke came out from under the port-cochère to welcome her.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, pages 69–70:

I stopped the Packard under the porte-cochere and emptied my pockets out on the seat.

1939, Raymond Chandler, chapter 8, in The Big Sleep, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, published August 1992, →ISBN, page 39:

Actually, a porte cochère is a canopy extending from a building to shelter people getting in and out of vehicles. Not too many people have porte cochères—French guys, mainly.

2004, Gary A. Dias, Robbie Dingeman, “Your Home is Your Castle”, in Honolulu CSI: An Introduction to Forensic Science and Criminal Investigation, Honolulu, Hi.: Bess Press, →ISBN, page 162:

The station remains connected to the hotel by a glass canopy or porte-cochère that was much admired by John Betjeman, but you could stand all day under that canopy and not see anyone walk from station to hotel.

2012, Andrew Martin, “The Expansion of the Metropolitan and the Expansion of the District – and a Pause for Thought”, in Underground Overground: A Passenger’s History of the Tube, London: Profile Books, →ISBN, page 78:

The front desk had already made a great fuss of Johnny and Mary, lining up to greet him at the famous porte-cochère as soon as his splendid old Rolls-Royce had arrived with his faithful driver, factotum and friend John Novelli at the wheel.

2014, Stephen Fry, “Living the Life”, in More Fool Me, London: Michael Joseph, →ISBN, page 223:

"This is a particularly good example of a timber railway station, with its Royal connection giving rise to some outstanding internal and external detailing. The swan-necked iron lamps, the porte-cochère and outstanding decoration in the Royal waiting room set the station apart."

2022 June 29, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Wonderful waiting rooms on the waiting list”, in RAIL, number 960, pages 59–60:

A porch, or roof without walls over a driveway, next to the entrance of a building which a vehicle can stop in or under to allow passengers to embark or disembark without being affected by bad weather.

車寄 /车寄

porch, or roof without walls over a driveway, next to the entrance of a building in or under which a vehicle can stop to allow passengers to embark or disembark without being affected by bad weather


glazing

en-noun

glazing (countable and uncountable, plural glazings)

Inherited from Middle English glasynge; equivalent to glaze + -ing.

(architecture) All the windows of a building.


shouldering

(architecture) The process of bracing a load with a jutting structural member such as a corbel or bracket.


coping

From cope (sense 2), used in the sense "dress in a cope," "to cover."

Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with (by way of local color) on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust […]

1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy), page 377, column 2:

He stood a moment at the coping, looking over a land of hard little bungalows with abnormally large porches, and new apartment-houses, small, but brave with variegated brick walls and terra-cotta trimmings.

(architecture) The top layer of a brick wall, especially one that slopes in order to throw off water.


pepperbox

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-pepperbox.wav

Large, stately, and dark was its [the château's] outline against the dusky night-sky; there were pepper-boxes and tourelles and what-not fantastically going up into the dim starlight.

1861, Elizabeth Gaskell, The Grey Woman:

(architecture) A tower capped by a cupola, looking similar to a giant pepper shaker.

I also remember the old Royal Mews that stood on the site of the present trumpery National Gallery, with its too suggestive pepper-boxes; […]

1887, Charles Mackay, Through the Long Day: Or, Memorials of a Literary Life, page 113:

Its architect, Wilkins, had the misfortune to be chosen to erect our much-abused National Gallery building, with its condemned "pepper-boxes" of cupolas; […]

2012, Edward Verrall Lucas, Highways and Byways in London:

(architecture, slang, chiefly in the plural) Any of the buildings of the Royal Academy and National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, London, having cupolas on the roof.


fenestrated

en-adj

fenestrated (comparative more fenestrated, superlative most fenestrated)

more fenestrated (comparative)
most fenestrated (superlative)

Latin fenestro, from the noun fenestra (“window”).


gavel

(Scotland, archaic, architecture) A gable.


wythe

Uncertain.
* Perhaps an alteration of width.
* Perhaps related to withe (“flexible twig; band of twigs”), from Old English wiþþe (“tie, band”).
The chimney-partition sense may derive from the fact that a single wythe or thickness of brick has often been used for such partitions.

A chimney runs from the base of the first flue liner to the top of the last flue liner, or to any rain cap above it. Attach single-wythe chimneys to the house.

1986, Jack Payne Jones, Handbook of Construction Contracting: Plans, specs, building, Craftsman Book Company, →ISBN, page 373:

[…] Where there is more than one flue, there is usually a single wythe of masonry separating the flues. Particularly on older chimneys with poor or missing caps, this wythe of brick dividing the flues may be[…]

2003, Carson Dunlop, Principles of Home Inspection: Chimneys & wood heating, Dearborn Real Estate, →ISBN, page 30:

(architecture) A partition between flues in a chimney.


foliate

en-verb

foliate (third-person singular simple present foliates, present participle foliating, simple past and past participle foliated)

foliates (present singular third-person)
foliating (participle present)
foliated (participle past)
foliated (past)

From Latin folium (“leaf”) + -ate (verb-forming suffix) (more at etymology 1)

af

All European architecture, bad and good, old and new, is derived from Greece through Rome, and coloured and perfected from the East. […] Now observe: those old Greeks gave the shaft; Rome gave the arch; the Arabs pointed and foliated the arch.

1851, John Ruskin, “The Quarry”, in The Stones of Venice, volume I (The Foundations), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 13:

(architecture) To decorate (an architectural feature, as an arch or window) with foils (“small arcs in the traceries of arches, windows, etc.”).

koristella viuhkakuviolla

to decorate (an architectural feature, as an arch or window) with foils


water table

(architecture) A molding or other projection in the wall of a building to throw off rainwater.


listello

(architecture) An architectural fillet, a tile border or listel


listel

(architecture) A narrow fillet or border.


entourage

/ˈɒn.tʊ.ɹɑːʒ/

/ˈɑ̃ː.tʊ.ɹɑːʒ/

/ˈɑn.tə.ɹɑʒ/

Unadapted borrowing from French entourage, from entourer (“to surround”).

ubor

(architecture) Decorations, such as people, vehicles, or trees, appearing on an architectural sketch or rendering to make the site look more lively.


embattled

en-adj

embattled (comparative more embattled, superlative most embattled)

more embattled (comparative)
most embattled (superlative)

From embattle (“to furnish with battlements”) + -ed.

suffix

The lofty towers of the Castle overhang the western approach to the Bridge, and the line passes into Conway through an opening pierced in the embattled wall, which entirely surrounds the town. These fortifications are in good preservation, and rank among the most perfect examples of the strongholds of the thirteenth century.

1850, Edwin Clark, “The Masonry and Scaffolding”, in The Britannia and Conway Tubular Bridges. […], volume II, London: […] Day and Son, […]; and John Weale, […], →OCLC, section VI (Details of Construction of the Bridges), page 534:

(architecture) Of a fortress or other building, a wall, etc.: having battlements or crenellations; battlemented, crenellated.

forsynet med skydeskår

of a fortress, etc.: having battlements or crenellations


space frame

(architecture) A three-dimensional truss, often of steel, forming a rigid, stable structure

空間桁架 /空间桁架

a three-dimensional truss, often of steel, forming a rigid, stable structure


cresting

The station also boasts a large semi-domed French pavilion roof with fish-scale tiles and iron cresting, plus a rectangular hall with arcaded upper storey and wooden lantern.

2022 January 12, Paul Bigland, “Fab Four: the nation's finest stations: Eastbourne”, in RAIL, number 948, page 27:

(architecture) An ornamental finish on the top of a wall or ridge of a roof.


functionalism

en-noun

functionalism (countable and uncountable, plural functionalisms)

/ˈfʌŋkʃənəlɪzəm/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-functionalism.wav

(architecture) A doctrine, in several fields, that the function of something should be reflected in its design and the materials used in its construction.


ancon

From Latin ancōn, from Ancient Greek ἀγκών (ankṓn, “bend, elbow, cranny”).

der

(architecture) A console that appears to support a cornice.


laquear

these were the panels proper of the laquear or fretted ceiling.

1903, Suetonius, Gai Suetoni Tranquilli De Vita Caesarum, Libri III-VI, page 298:

Gradus in quo lector stat, Amp. I, V. 381, it is clear that the ambo, which is meant by it, was to a certain extent an imitation of the laquear in Solomon's temple .

1919, Leo Wiener, Contributions Towards a History of Arabico-Gothic Culture, page 351:

The sunk or hollow compartments, which form the laquear of this depressed vault, differ considerably in shape and arrangement from those which were adopted when it was finally rejected.

2022, John Addington Symonds, The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti:


cortile

(architecture) An internal courtyard, surrounded by walls but open to the sky


anta

Learned borrowing from Latin antae (“pilasters”), with a back-formed singular form.

lbor

(architecture) A kind of pier that terminates the walls of the naos, a kind of post or pillar on either side of a doorway or entrance of a Greek temple.


Adamesque

en-adj

Adamesque (comparative more Adamesque, superlative most Adamesque)

more Adamesque (comparative)
most Adamesque (superlative)

Samuel McIntyre, famed for his distinctive and delicate version of the English Adamesque style.

2004, Carolyn K. Tolles, Bryant Franklin Tolles - Architecture in Salem: An Illustrated Guide:

(architecture) In the style of Robert Adam (1728–1792), Scottish neoclassical architect.


necking

en-noun

necking (countable and uncountable, plural neckings)


bague

Borrowed from French bague (“ring”). Doublet of bee.

(architecture) The annular moulding or group of mouldings dividing a long shaft or clustered column into two or more parts.


surmounted

(architecture) Of an arch or dome: rising higher than a semicircle.


weathered

en-adj

weathered (comparative more weathered, superlative most weathered)

more weathered (comparative)
most weathered (superlative)

(architecture) Made slightly sloping, so as to throw off water.


channeled

channeled (comparative more channeled, superlative most channeled)

more channeled (comparative)
most channeled (superlative)

(architecture) Having channels or flutings.


pisé

From French pisé, from piser (“to stamp, pound”).

The above method of forming Pisé walling is different from the mode of building common in Devonshire and the West of England

(architecture) A kind of wall made of stiff earth or clay rammed in between moulds which are carried up as the wall rises.


orle

From Old French (also modern) orle, from orler (“to hem”), or from Vulgar Latin *orula, a diminutive of Latin ora (“edge”), probably from os, oris (“mouth”).

(architecture) A fillet under the ovolo of a capital.


regula

Learned borrowing from Latin rēgula (“rule”). Doublet of rail, regal, rigol, and rule.

lbor

(architecture) One of the bands under a Doric triglyph or between the canals of the triglyphs.


bartisan

bartisans (plural)
bartizan (alternative)

Borrowed by the Scottish novelist Walter Scott (see quotation) from Middle Scots bartisan, variant of bartising, from Middle English bretasynge. Doublet of bratticing.

she soon found it had no communication with any other part of the battlements, being an isolated bartisan, or balcony, secured, as usual, by a parapet, with embrasures, at which a few archers might be stationed for defending the turret, and flanking with their shot the wall of the castle on that side.

1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter X, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 165:

There were flambeaux on staggering poles every ten strides or so, and at intervals of about a hundred strides, bartizans whose guardroom windows glared like fireworks clung to the bridge piers.

1980, Gene Wolfe, chapter XIV, in The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun; 1), New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, pages 131–132:

(architecture) A parapet with battlements projecting from the top of a tower in a castle or church.


cincture

/ˈsɪŋk.t͡ʃɚ/

From Latin cinctūra. Cognate with Spanish cintura (“waist”). Doublet of ceinture.

(architecture) The fillet, listel, or band next to the apophyge at the extremity of the shaft of a column.

caiseal (colúin)

(architecture) the fillet, listel, or band next to the apophyge at the extremity of the shaft of a column


glacis

Borrowed from French glacis (“slippery surface”), derived from Old French glacier (“to glide; freeze”), the former from Latin glaciāre (“to freeze”), from glaciēs (“ice”), of uncertain origin.
Cognates
* Medieval Latin glatia (“incline in front of a fortification”)

cog

[T]ook his place with solemn / Air 'midst the rest, who kept their valiant faces / And levelled weapons still against the glacis.

1823 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan. Cantos VI.—VII.—and VIII., London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for John Hunt, […], →OCLC, canto VIII, stanza XXXIV, page 128:

[T]heir hearts had failed them at the silence and the blaze of lighted ships from end to end of the harbour, with eerie beams of the searchlights revealing the bleakness of the glacis they would have to cross.

1922 (date written; published 1926), T[homas] E[dward] Lawrence, “Book II: Opening the Arab Offensive. Chapter XX.”, in Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Company, published 1937, →OCLC, page 130:

(architecture, also figuratively) A gentle incline in front of a fortification which protects it from cannon fire and exposes attackers to more effective return fire from defenders.


opisthodomos

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ὀπισθόδομος (opisthódomos, “back room”), from ὄπισθεν (ópisthen) + δόμος (dómos).

bor

(Greek architecture) A porch at the rear of a temple, set against the blank back wall of the cella.


Moorish

en-adj

Moorish (comparative more Moorish, superlative most Moorish)

more Moorish (comparative)
most Moorish (superlative)

Mar-a-Lago was quiet three days before Thanksgiving. Donald Trump’s Moorish palace seemed all but deserted late that morning, the seaside estate’s cavernous living room traversed intermittently by a junior staffer or silent aide.

2024 December 12, Eric Cortellessa, “Donald Trump 2024 TIME Person of the Year”, in Time:

(architecture) Of or pertaining to a style of Spanish and Portuguese architecture from the time of the Moors, characterized by the horseshoe arch and ornate, geometric decoration.

maurilainen

of or pertaining to architecture of Moors in Spain


denticulate

Each is embellished with Italian Renaissance-inspired detail, including rusticated stonework, pedimented window hoods, consoles, cartouches, a denticulate cornice and a roof-mounted balustrade

2001, Ray McDevitt, Courthouses of California, page 330:

(architecture) Having dentils or denticules.


dentil

From French dentille, ultimately from Latin dente, ablative singular of dēns.

(architecture) Any one of a series of small rectangular blocks projecting like teeth from a molding or beneath a cornice.

tandlijst

a small rectangular block projecting like a tooth from beneath a cornice


miserere

From Middle English miserere, a borrowing from Latin miserēre (“have pity”), first word of the 51st Psalm (50th in the older Greek and Latin numbering), translating Ancient Greek ἐλέησον (eléēson) and Biblical Hebrew חָנֵּנִי (ḥānnēnî), inflected form of חָנַן (ḥānan, “have mercy”).

(architecture) A small projecting boss or bracket on the underside of the hinged seat of a church stall, intended to give some support to a standing worshipper when the seat is turned up; a misericord.


bahut

Borrowed from French bahut, of unknown origin.

(obsolete, architecture) A dwarf-wall of plain masonry, carrying the roof of a cathedral or church and masked or hidden behind the balustrade.


quartering

(architecture) A series of quarters, or small upright posts.


bracketing

(architecture) A series or group of brackets; brackets, collectively.


barrel roof

(architecture) A roof having a semicircular cross section; used to span large distances in railway stations etc


triplex

From Latin triplex. Analyzable as tri- + -plex.

Having three parts; triple or threefold.

(architecture) Having three units, divisions, suites, apartments


apodyterium

en-noun

apodyterium (plural apodyteriums or apodyteria)

apodyteriums (plural)
apodyteria (plural)

/ˌæpədaɪˈtɪəɹi.əm/

From Latin, from Ancient Greek ἀποδυτήριον (apodutḗrion), from ἀποδύω (apodúō, “strip oneself”).

(architecture, historical) The apartment at the entrance of the baths, or in the palestra, for getting undressed.

apodytère

the apartment at the entrance of the baths, or in the palestra, for getting undressed


bed-mould

(architecture) The congeries of mouldings which is under the projecting part of almost every cornice, of which, indeed, it is a part.


cyclostyle

From cyclo- + style (as in stylus). Late 19th century.

(architecture) A circular group of columns without a core.


sphaeristerium

(architecture) A large open space connected with the Ancient Roman thermae, for exercise with balls after the bather had been anointed.


chimney stack

chimney stacks (plural)
chimneystack (alternative)

The smoke-pall of industrial Lancashire hung over the landscape; perhaps slagscape would be a more fitting term. The general prospect was a succession of chimney-stacks, factories, pit-heads, slagheaps, junctions, sidings and coal wagons.

1949 January and February, F. G. Roe, “I Saw Three Englands–1”, in Railway Magazine, page 11:

(architecture) A vertical structure, normally of brick, rising from a roof, containing one or more flues, each one terminating in a chimney pot.


DI

DI (countable and uncountable, plural DIs)

software architecture
software architecture

dependency injection
dependency injection#English

(software architecture) Initialism of dependency injection.


beading

beading (countable and uncountable, plural beadings)

(architecture) A decorative, ornamental molding often used to conceal a joint.


colonnaded

en-adj

colonnaded (comparative more colonnaded, superlative most colonnaded)

more colonnaded (comparative)
most colonnaded (superlative)

But the troubles at Credit Suisse — whose colonnaded headquarters in Zurich are more than 5,800 miles from Silicon Valley Bank’s base in California — are separate and largely of its own making.

2023 March 15, Michael J. de la Merced, Maureen Farrell, “Credit Suisse to Borrow Up to $54 Billion From Central Bank”, in The New York Times:

(architecture) Having one or more colonnades.


interceptor

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-interceptor.wav

(architecture, engineering) A device to trap, remove, or separate hazardous or undesirable matter (such as oil or sand) from normal waste conveyed through it, permitting normal sewage or liquid wastes to discharge into the disposal terminal by gravity.


feathering

en-noun

feathering (countable and uncountable, plural featherings)

(architecture) An arrangement of small arcs or foils separated by projecting cusps, frequently forming the feather-like ornament on the inner mouldings of arches.


saddleback

(architecture) A coping that is thicker in the middle than at the edges.


skeiling

Skeilings are found across southern England, in regions like Sussex, Cornwall, and the Isle of Wight and Channel Islands.

(architecture) A straight sloped part of a ceiling, such as on the underside of a pitched roof.


fenestration

fenestration (countable and uncountable, plural fenestrations)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-fenestration.wav

(architecture) The arrangement of windows and similar openings in a building.

aukkojen sijoittelu

arrangement of windows etc in a building


apside

Back-formation from apsides, from Ancient Greek ἁψῖδες (hapsîdes, “apsides”), plural of ἁψίς (hapsís).


intrados

en-noun

intrados (plural intradoses or intrados)

From French, from Latin intra (“within”) + French dos (“back”) (from Latin dostrum).

* Application of stitching bars to intrados (inner arch) though cracked voussoirs, grout and apply crack injection to seal.

2020 May 20, Philip Haigh, “Ribblehead: at the heart of the S&C's survival and its revival: Ribblehead Viaduct repairs”, in Rail, page 27:

(architecture) The inner curve of an arch or vault.


extrados

extrados (plural extradoses or extrados)

From French extradossé (“outer curve”) from Latin extra (“outside”) + dos (“back”) (from Latin dorsum).

The two lower rows of tubes at each end pier were then drilled through to the extrados of the brickwork to act as weep holes and assist in the drainage from the backs of the arches.

1954 January, “Strengthening of Coquet Viaduct”, in Railway Magazine, page 19:

(architecture) The outer or upper curve of an arch.


postern

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-postern.wav

From Old French posterne, alteration of posterle, from Late Latin posterula (“back door”), from Latin posterus (“later”).

And as they cam hurlyng vnder the Castel where as sir launcelot lay in wyndowe / & sawe how two knyghtes layd vpon syr Blyaunt with their swerdes /[…]/ And thenne sir launcelot brake the chaynes fro his legges and of his armes /[…]/ & so sir launcelot ran out at a posterne / and there he mett with the two knyȝtes that chaced sir Blyaunt

1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “ij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book XII:

He by a privy postern took his flight.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 52:

Out at the postern, by the abbey wall.

c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

The Duke of Argyle led the way in silence to the small postern by which they had been admitted into Richmond Park, so long the favourite residence of Queen Caroline. It was opened by the same half-seen janitor, and they found themselves beyond the precincts of the royal demesne.

1818 July 25, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter I, in Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume IV, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC, page 3:

(architecture) A back gate, back door, side entrance, or other gateway distinct from the main entrance, especially in a city wall or fortification.


balteus

Borrowed from Latin balteus (“belt, girdle”).

bor+

(architecture) An Ionic ornamental band encircling the pulvinus, or bolster of the capital.


internationalism

en-noun

internationalism (usually uncountable, plural internationalisms)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-internationalism.wav

(architecture) A major architectural style that was developed in the 1920s and 1930s and was closely related to modernism, characterized by lightweight industrial materials, lack of ornamentation, and flat surfaces.


naos

naoses (plural)
naosoi (plural)
naoi (plural)

From Ancient Greek ναός (naós, “inner part of the temple”).

borrowed

The simplest form of the rectangular temple was that in which the two side walls were carried out from the naos to form the porch at one or both extremities of the building.

1846, Henry Ellis, The Elgin and Phigaleian marbles of the classical ages, in the British museum:

The uncertainty that exists, from the condition of the ruins, as to the height originally assigned by the architect to the interior of the naos and of the opisthodomus,^([sic – meaning opisthodomos]) hampers our investigation of the considerations by which he decided the distribution of the plan.

1868, William Watkiss Lloyd, On the General Theory of Proportion in Architectural Design, John Weale, page 18:

The interior breadth of the naos of the temple as octastyle may, therefore, be deduced within very narrow limits of error;[…].

1888, H. H. Statham, editor, The Builder, Volume 54, page 114:

(historical, architecture) The inner part of an ancient Greek temple, containing a statue of the temple's deity and surrounded by a colonnaded portico; (by extension) the Roman cella, which it later gave rise to.


firms

(obsolete, architecture) The principal rafters of a roof, especially a pair of rafters taken together.


stained glass

en-noun

stained glass (usually uncountable, plural stained glasses)

(architecture) The use of such glass to construct decorative windows, especially in churches.


pronaos

From Ancient Greek πρόναος (prónaos, “vestibule of a church”).

uder

(architecture) The inner area of the portico of a Greek or Roman temple

prónaos

the inner area of the portico of a Greek or Roman temple


entablature

From Italian intavolatura, from in + tavola (“table”).

In the midst was one immense cedar, worthy to have been a summer palace on Lebanon; beneath, sheltered by its huge boughs from the sun, was a well, whose square marble walls were covered with the entablatures of the Roman days,—oval compartments of figures, surrounded by a carved wreath of the palm.

1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 239:

(architecture) All of that part of a classical temple above the capitals of the columns; includes the architrave, frieze, and cornice but not the roof.


quatrefoil

quatrefoils (plural)
quadrefoil (alternative)
quarterfoil (alternative archaic)
quaterfoil (alternative archaic)

/kætɹəˌfɔɪl/

From Old French quatrefoil, from quatre (“four”) + foil (“leaf”).

It was a narrow, gravelled island we had to lie on, guarded by glazed brick chimneys and, running along the sides, a prickly little gothic fence of iron finials and terracotta quatrefoils.

1988, Alan Hollinghurst, The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 142:

(architecture) A symmetrical shape that forms the overall outline of four partially-overlapping circles of the same diameter.


bridging

All the joists and bridgings of the mezzanine floor to have stout double herringbone strutting not more than 6 feet apart.

1860, Thomas Leverton Donaldson, William Cunningham Glen, Handbook of Specifications, page 319:

(architecture) The system of bracing used between floor or other timbers to distribute the weight.


raiser

(architecture) The upright board on the front of a step in a flight of steps.


pendent

en-adj

pendent (comparative more pendent, superlative most pendent)

more pendent (comparative)
most pendent (superlative)

From Middle English pendaunt, Anglo-Norman pendaunt, pendant, respelled to reflect Latin pendēns, pendentis, present participle of pendere (“to hang, to be suspended”). Compare pendant, which retained the spelling.

(architecture, of a structure) Either hanging in some sense, or constructed of multiple elements such as the voussoirs of an arch or the pendentives of a dome, none of which can stand on its own, but which in combination are stable.


columnated

columnated (comparative more columnated, superlative most columnated)

more columnated (comparative)
most columnated (superlative)


structural research

(architecture) A field of research and analysis in architecture that uses studies and details from nature or other sources to produce or create a new structure. It is used in design and architecture to imitate structures and improve them giving them a certain amount of art feeling. Structural research can be also called structural art or structural design.


belvedere

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-belvedere.wav

Borrowed from Italian belvedere (literally “fair view”).

bor

“One evening,” she went on, “while Madame Orio was fast asleep in her little belvedere (it being the good old lady's habit to repair there to rest after a bottle or two of red Padua wine), Manette and Marton left the widow's house noiselessly in the Campo San Zobenigo, and made their way running towards the Piazza of St. Mark's.”

1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, hardback edition, Duckworth, page 57:

The most important thing, she reflected, as she stood on the balcony of the Mairie which formed a most useful belvedere over the town, was to make her appearance as commonplace and down at heel as possible […].

1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 761:

Three castellated (with battlements) towers stand sentry here, with one being particularly large. This is said to have been used by Rhodes as a belvedere, and (according to some sources) by railway staff for some time after opening.

2020 August 26, Tim Dunn, “Great railway bores of our time!”, in Rail, page 46:

(architecture) A turret or other raised structure offering a pleasant view of the surrounding area.


apsidal

(architecture, astronomy) Of, pertaining to, or in the form of an apse or apsis

absidal

of, pertaining to, or in the form of an apse


fluting

(architecture, sculpture) A decoration consisting of parallel, normally vertical, flutes (grooves) incised into the surface.


terrazzo

en-noun

terrazzo (countable and uncountable, plural terrazzos)

terrazzos (plural)
terrazo (alternative)

A fibreglass fish should have been spewing water into a terrazzo fountain, but the pipes had not yet been connected and bags of cement were heaped in the basin.

1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 265:

Richard Sammons[…] began by leaving the ground floor studio pretty much as he found it, with 15-foot ceilings and a black terrazzo floor.

2007 January 4, Fred A. Bernstein, “Art Above and Below, With Life in the Middle”, in New York Times:

(architecture) A faux-marble material used for flooring and countertops.


aulic

en-adj

aulic (comparative more aulic, superlative most aulic)

more aulic (comparative)
most aulic (superlative)

From Latin aulicus (“of a prince's court”), from aula (“royal court”), from Ancient Greek αὐλή (aulḗ, “courtyard”).

The basic structure of the villa is aulic, with perpendicular rooms at either end of the main hall.

2004, Michael Kulikowski, Late Roman Spain and Its Cities, page 303:

(architecture) Of, pertaining to, or resembling a palace.


tracery

Because of the flamelike undulations of its window tracery, the Norman archæologist, M. de Caumont, who had brought into use the name Romanesque, invented the equally useful term Flamboyant.

1921, Elizabeth Boyle O'Reilly, How France Built Her Cathedrals, Harper & Brothers, page 140:

(architecture) Bars or ribs, usually of stone or wood, or other material, that subdivide an opening or stand in relief against a door or wall as an ornamental feature.


understory

en-noun

understory (plural understories or (rare) understorys)

understories (plural)
understorys (plural rare)
understorey (alternative)

PIE word
 *h₁n̥dʰér
From under- (prefix meaning ‘beneath, under’) + story (“a floor or level”).

prefix

On the Vnder Story, tovvards the Garden, Let it be turned to a Grotta, or Place of Shade, or Eſtiuation.

1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Building. XLV.”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC, page 263:

The two middle storeys of the towers are adorned with one tier of Corinthian pilasters in the style of Lord Carlisle's house at Castle Howard. The understorey is rustic.

1760, Richard Pococke, quotee, “Art. VI.—The Annals of Banff. Compiled by William Cramond, M.A., LL.D. Printed for the New Spalding Club. Aberdeen, 1893. [book review]”, in John Taylor Coleridge, editor, The Quarterly Review, volume 186, number 371, London: John Murray, […], published July 1897, →OCLC, page 155:

Elgin has vvhat in England are called piazzas, that run in many places on each ſide of the ſtreet. […] I approved much of ſuch ſtructures in a tovvn, on account of their conveniency in vvet vveather. Dr. Johnſon diſapproved of them, "becauſe (ſaid he) it makes the under ſtory of a houſe very dark, vvhich greatly over-balances the conveniency, vvhen it is conſidered hovv ſmall a part of the year it rains;[…]"

1785, James Boswell, quoting Samuel Johnson, “Thursday, 26th August [1773]”, in The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. […], London: […] Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, […], →OCLC, page 122:

Q. VVhat did you find? / A. I found in a cloſet in the under ſtorey of VVatt's houſe a dozen of ſpears.

1793 November 19, John Hill Blanchard (recorder), quoting William Middleton (witness), Trial of Robert Watt, for High Treason, before the Court, under the Special Commission of Oyer and Terminer, Held at Edinburgh. […], Edinburgh: […] William Brown, […], published 1795, →OCLC, page 131:

The banqueting-house is a very striking and beautiful building in the form of a cross, open every way, and supported by a multitude of pillars and arches, erected on an under-story of an octagonal form.

1828, Reginald Heber, “Buxar to Benares”, in Narrative of a Journey through the Upper Provinces of India, from Calcutta to Bombay, 1824–1825, […], volume I, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 265:

Besides, to the vulgar it is more agreeable to behold difficulties overcome, than to examine laboriously all the complicated machinery by which the effect is produced. They lack the patience to learn in detail the name and office of each wheel, and pulley, and spring, hidden in the understorey of politics, by which the beautiful results they contemplate on the surface of society are originated, and pronounce insipid every attempt to introduce them to their knowledge.

1838, J[ames] A[ugustus] St. John, “Preliminary Discourse”, in Thomas More, Francis Bacon, Utopia: or, The Happy Republic. A Philosophical Romance, by Sir Thomas More. To which is Added, The New Atlantis, by Lord Bacon. […], London: Joseph Rickerby, […], →OCLC, page lii:

The stone foundation is generally in the form of an under[-]story. Sometimes a dwelling-house is lifted, and shops put in below. I was told of a congregation in a city which, being in want of money, had their church lifted so as to allow of the insertion of shops beneath, got these let, and speedily relieved the church from its embarrassments.

1881, David Macrae, “The Lightning City”, in The Americans at Home: Pen-and-ink Sketches of American Men, Manners, and Institutions, revised edition, Glasgow: John S. Marr & Sons, →OCLC, page 346:

(architecture, dated, also figuratively) A story of a building below the stories generally used for residence or work.


impluvium

en-noun

impluvium (plural impluviums or impluvia)

Latin impluvium, from impluit (“rains upon”)

(architecture) A low basin in the center of a household atrium, into which rainwater flowed down from the roof through the compluvium.


waterleaf

Hydrophyllaceae
Hydrophyllum
Talinum fruticosum
Waterleaf (architecture)

waterleaf (plural waterleafs or waterleaves)

waterleafs (plural)
waterleaves (plural)
water-leaf (alternative)

(architecture) A leaf-shaped decoration used on the capitals of columns in late 12th-century Romanesque architecture


kremlin

Similar forms are attested, per Vasmer's Etymological Dictionary, in earlier German Kremelin and French Cremlin, which are theorized to come from Old East Slavic кремльнъ (kremlĭnŭ, “having a kremlin”), from кремль (kremlĭ), whence Russian кремль (kremlʹ).

uder

9% of historical parks are the gardens of monasteries and kremlins (fortified centres in the towns), 8% are urban ("public") gardens and only 2% are parks on urban estates.

1997, Council of Europe, Cultural Policy in the Russian Federation, page 107:

Several cities in Russia were built around fortresses called kremlins. Russians built kremlins for defense during the Middle Ages. A kremlin was often located along a river.

2012, Britannica Student Encyclopedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc, page 87:

The centre of the kremlin usually held the prince's or voivode’s court, the cathedral, and the bishop's court. This arrangement can be seen in quite a number of 16th-century kremlins. The main street of the kremlin connected this complex with the gate leading to the marketplace.

2012, Konstantin Nossov, Russian Fortresses 1480-1682, page 45:

(architecture, Slavic architecture) A fortified, central complex found in various Russian cities.


open-plan

en-adj

open-plan (comparative more open-plan, superlative most open-plan)

more open-plan (comparative)
most open-plan (superlative)

(architecture) Having large rooms with few dividing barriers such as partitions.

Großraum- (in compounds like Großraumbüro)


outwork

en-noun

outwork (countable and uncountable, plural outworks)

Beyond the castle, scattered outworks offered some protection for the farther-flung peasants.

(architecture, countable) A minor, subsidiary fortification built beyond the main limits of fortification.

ܚܣܢܐ

a minor, subsidiary fortification built beyond the main limits of fortification


corbie step

corbie steps (plural)
corbie-step (alternative)
corbiestep (alternative)
corbel-step (alternative)

It is a great red-brick house - that is, the front is of brick, with corbie steps on the gables and a text over the door; but the courtyard into which the omnibus drives is of black and white 'cage-work' in wood and plaster.

1904, Montague Rhodes James, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, number 13:

(architecture) One of a series of step-like projections at the top of a gable.


GRP

GRP (countable and uncountable, plural GRPs)

(architecture) Initialism of glass-reinforced plastic.


toran

From Sanskrit तोरण (toraṇa, “arched portal”).

(architecture) A gateway consisting of two upright pillars carrying one to three transverse lintels, often minutely carved with symbolic sculpture, and serving as a monumental approach to a Buddhist temple.


chapiter

From Middle English chapitre, from Old French chapitre, from Latin capitulum, diminutive of caput (“head”). Doublet of chapter and capitulum.

Also he made before the house two pillars of thirty and five cubits high, and the chapiter that was on the top of each of them was five cubits.

1891, Albert Gallatin Mackey, Manual of the Lodge, page 70:

(architecture) The capital or uppermost part of a column, upon which the roof and its decorations are supported.


tambour

tambour (countable and uncountable, plural tambours)

Borrowed from French tambour (“drum”), from Arabic طُنْبُور (ṭunbūr), from the Middle Persian ancestor of Classical Persian تنبور (tanbūr). Doublet of tabor. Compare Armenian տաւիղ (tawiġ), and tabla.

(architecture) The capital of a Corinthian column.

(architecture) Synonym of drum (“cylindrical stone in the shaft of a column”).


knop

From Middle English knop, from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch knoppe, from Proto-Germanic *knuppô, *knuppaz, *knappô, which is perhaps related to *knappō (“knob, boy”). Possible doublet of knave and knob.

In the three upper elements, the knop-finial-fillet, both masters use all three squares from the base plan forming widths of 1:2:√2 (another pleasing rhythm). In the gable over the window the finials have width in the ratio of √2:4:2. The elements on the pinnacle relate to those on the gable as 1:√2, 1:2 and √2:2.

2007, John James, In Search of the Unknown in Medieval Architecture, Pindar Press, →ISBN, page 438:

(architecture) A finial, or swelling termination


lightwell

In it a covered porch and vestibule were backed by a vertical shaft or "light-well," which served as a great window both to the vestibule itself, and to the corridors, staircases, and landings that connected it with the upper stories.

1907, Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries In Crete, page 80:

The sliding glass door with its rolled-up blinds looked onto a lightwell, composed of a glass platform overhead and carefully angled mirrors that were reflecting a confusing cold light into the bedroom.

2017, Kamila Shamsie, Home Fire, Bloomsbury (2018), page 240:

(architecture) An open shaft that transmits light from above into a staircase or an inner room.

celobert

an open shaft that transmits light from above into a room


voussoir

Unadapted borrowing from French voussoir, from Old French vosoir, from Vulgar Latin *volsorium, from *volsus, from Latin volvō (“I roll”).

ubor

It is the voussoir depth in a real arch which enables the arch to carry wider ranges of loading; a large number of different idealized centre-line arches can be contained within a given practical profile. ...[T]his must be so, or no mediaeval bridge would have survived its decentering.

1977, Jaques Heyman, Equilibrium of Shell Structures, Clarendon Press, Oxford, page 2:

Other areas have mortar joints missing, including between the voussoir blocks forming the edge of the arches on either side of the pier.

2020 May 20, Philip Haigh, “Ribblehead: at the heart of the S&C's survival and its revival: Ribblehead Viaduct repairs”, in RAIL, page 26:

(architecture) One of a series of wedge-shaped bricks or stones forming an arch or vault.


sedilia

Latin, plural of sedile (“seat, bench”).

(obsolete or historical, architecture) A series of seats, typically three, often recessed into the wall, on the south side of the chancel or choir, reserved for the use of officiating clergy.


lattice window

(architecture) a window with strips of metal holding small pieces of glass


gambrel

Uncertain, perhaps from Old Northern French gamberel, from gambe (“leg”).


astragal

From Ancient Greek ἀστράγαλος (astrágalos). Doublet of astragalus.

(architecture) A semicircular molding separating the architrave at the top or bottom of a column.

(architecture) A molding attached to double doors to prevent drafts.


trimmer

(architecture) A beam into which are framed the ends of headers in floor framing, as when a hole is to be left for stairs, or to avoid bringing joists near chimneys.


brick veneer

Many home buyers like the low maintenance and quality look of a brick veneer home. The veneer will never need painting; it will protect the house from wind (Figure 1); and if the work is done right, the veneer will last the lifetime of the house.

1997, Steven Bliss, Troubleshooting Guide to Residential Construction, page 74:

2003, Ali M. Memari, Mohammad Aliaari, Ahmad A. Hamid, Evaluation of Seismic Performance of Anchored Brick Veneer Walls, Paul G. Johnson, Performance of Exterior Building Walls, page 115,
Brick veneer walls are supported in most cases by shelf angles attached to the floor slab at each story and are supposed to carry only ther own weight and not participate in inplane lateral load resistance […] In this paper, it is discussed how the vertical differential movement between the brick veneer and the frame can close the gap between the underside of the shelf angle and the top course of brick, thus putting the brick veneer under high compressive stresses.

2010, The Complete Guide to Masonry and Stonework, 3rd edition, Black & Decker, page 262,
And because brick veneer does not require mortar, installation is well within the capabilities of interested homeowners.

(architecture) A building construction technique in which an external, non-structural, brick wall conceals a structural wall of another material (such as timber or steel).


casemate

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-casemate.wav

From French casemate, from Italian casamatta. Further origin unclear, could be a compound casa (“house”) + matta (“mat (of straw), roof made of such material”), or borrowed from Greek χάσματα (chásmata) the plural of χάσμα (chásma, “gap”), presumably referring to the loopholes for shooting from.

compound

(architecture) A hollow molding, chiefly in cornices.


fortification curtain

en-noun

fortification curtain (plural fortification curtains)

(architecture) The section of a wall or rampart between two gates, bastions, towers or the like.


arching

(architecture) The arched part of a structure.


dogtrot

From Middle English dogge trot; equivalent to dog + trot.

Old Billy Dill and his ugly wife and son are sitting together in the dogtrot.

The dogtrot was protected from the rain and, because its front and back were open, the Bernoulli principle provided a cooling effect ...

2007, Allen George Noble, Traditional Buildings: A Global Survey of Structural Forms and Cultural Functions (Architecture), I.B. Tauris, →ISBN, page 34:

(architecture, Southern US) A breezeway, open passageway, or open hallway between two sections of a house.

One Appalachian solution to the problem of adding needed living space to an existing small cabin was the dogtrot, sometimes called the dogrun, possum trot, two pens-and-a-passage, double house, or erroneously the double pen.

2007, Allen George Noble, Traditional Buildings: A Global Survey of Structural Forms and Cultural Functions (Architecture), I.B. Tauris, →ISBN, page 33:

(architecture, Southern US) A type of house with an open breezeway or hallway between two sections of a house.


dogtrot

If America can claim any significant development in log construction, it might be the dogtrot cabin, … Henry Glassie believes that the dogtrot form developed in the southern Tennessee Valley area ...

1977, Charles van Ravenswaay, The Arts and Architecture of German Settlements in Missouri, reprint edition (History), University of Missouri Press, published 2006, →ISBN, page 131:

(architecture, Southern US) Having an open breezeway or hallway between two sections of a house.


tempietto

Trowbridge & Livingston designed a chubby granite tower in the neo-Classical style topped not by a tempietto, a cupola or a spire — all used in previous high buildings — but a steep, massive pyramid of 24 steps.

2007 January 21, Christopher Gray, “Bankers Trust: The Building Known for Its Ziggurat Top”, in New York Times:

(architecture) A small, temple-like building


floor plan

floor plans (plural)
floorplan (alternative)
floor-plan (alternative)

Show visitors use the showguide (with floor-plan and ads) to pre-plan their limited visiting time […]

1985, Walter S. Kelley, Henry G. Lord, Walter Bradford Guild, Textile World, volume 135, page 57:

(architecture) A diagram, usually to scale, showing the layout of a building.


multibay

(architecture, of a structure) Having three or more rigid supports.


piloti

From French pilotis, from Middle French pilot (“stake”). Attested from the 17th century.

(architecture) One of the columns, pillars, or stilts that lift a building above ground or water.


sand trap

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sand trap.wav

(architecture) A basin that prevents the passage of sand etc into a drainage system.


congé

Borrowed from French congé, from Latin commeātus (“a leave; permission for a leave”). As an architectural term, a French calque of ἀποφυγή (apophugḗ, “a leave, an escape; an architectural feature”).

der

(architecture) Synonym of apophyge or cavetto, supports at the top or bottom of pillars, particularly rings or ferrils in the extremities of wooden pillars, added to provide support and prevent splintering, their imitation in stone, or a molding in the form of a quarter round.


gradino

(architecture) A step or raised shelf, as above a sideboard or altar.


cyclostylar

(architecture) Of or pertaining to a cyclostyle (a circular group of columns without a core).


Cyzicene

Derived from the Latin word cyzicenus used by Vitruvius; from the city of Cyzicus.

(architecture) Of or pertaining to, or being, a large north-facing hall with a prospect towards the gardens; the windows of this hall opened down to the ground, so that the green verdure could be seen by those lying on the couches.


metope

metopes (plural)
metopa (alternative obsolete)

From Latin metopa and its source, Koine Greek μετόπη (metópē), from μετά (metá, “between”) + ὀπή (opḗ, “hole”).

af

There's a second plate of that metope that shows the full figures of both Perseus and Medusa and includes the winged horse Pegasus that was born of Medusa's blood.

1996, Russell Hoban, Fremder, Bloomsbury, published 2003, page 117:

Architects working on the recent restoration programme have found clear evidence that in its first design the building featured just a row of metope panels over the east and west entrances, where the frieze now runs […].

2002, Mary Beard, The Parthenon, Profile Books, published 2010, page 128:

(architecture) The architectural element between two triglyphs in a Doric frieze.


plancher

(architecture) The underside of a cornice; a soffit.


chambranle

/ˈʃɒmbɹɒnlə/

(architecture) In architecture, the case or frame used on three sides around a chamber door, large window, or fireplace mantel, and the border decorations.


Catherine wheel

en-noun

Catherine wheel (plural Catherine wheels)

Catherine wheels (plural)
Catharine wheel (alternative)
Catharine-wheel (alternative)
Catherine-wheel (alternative)
catherine wheel (alternative)
catherine-wheel (alternative)

Saint Catherine of Alexandria was said to have been sentenced to execution on such a wheel, which shattered at her touch.


bay window

From Middle English baywyndow, baywyndowe, bay-windowe, equivalent to bay + window where bay refers to an opening between columns.

(architecture) A window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room.


bossing

(architecture) A boss; a projecting element.


abat-vent

Borrowed from French abat-vent, from abattre (“to throw down”) + vent (“wind”), from Latin ventus.

(architecture) Louvres or strips of wood or metal used as windbreaks that allow light and air in, often seen in belfries.


clipeus

(architecture) An ornamental disk of marble in this shape.


ajaraca

(architecture) An ornamental pattern made in a wall from bricks that protrude halfway out; originally from parts of Spain.


splayed

a splayed door frame

(architecture) Of a door or a window: bevelled so as to be larger on one side of the wall than on the other.


trussing

1849-1850, John Weale, Rudimentary Dictionary of Terms used in Architecture, Building, and Engineering
Beds (Trussing) were beds which packed into chests , for travelling ; and , considering the frequent removals , these must have been the most convenient kind .

(architecture, engineering) The timbers, etc., that form a truss.


painted lady

An archetypal American streetscape is lined with Aesthetic movement houses: Stick Style cottages with muscular roof trusses and exposed timbering; many-colored painted ladies with gingerbread porches; […]

2006, Karen Zukowski, Creating the Artful Home, Gibbs Smith, →ISBN, page 80:

(US, architecture) A Victorian house repainted with vibrant colors to accentuate the architectural design, especially in San Francisco, California.


air brick

air bricks (plural)
airbrick (alternative)

(architecture) A brick-sized block with holes which is embedded in a wall to allow ventilation through it.


gradin

(architecture) Any of a series of terraced steps or seats, as in an arena or an altar.


cubile

Learned borrowing from Latin cubīle (“bed”).

lbor

(obsolete, architecture) The lowest course of stones in a building.


scape

From Latin scāpus, from Doric Greek σκᾶπος (skâpos). Doublet of native English shaft.


aegicrane

(architecture) The decorative carved head of a ram or goat.


quadra

(architecture) The plinth, or lowest member, of any pedestal, podium, water table, or the like.


poché

en-noun

poché (countable and uncountable, plural pochés)

(architecture) Areas of an architectural plan or section that are filled in, often by cross-hatching or solid black, to show wall thicknesses, floor thicknesses and all other solid areas that intersect the plane of the section cut.


poché

en-verb

poché (third-person singular simple present pochés, present participle pochéing, simple past and past participle pochéed or pochéd)

pochés (present singular third-person)
pochéing (participle present)
pochéed (participle past)
pochéed (past)
pochéd (participle past)
pochéd (past)

(architecture, transitive) To fill (areas of an architectural plan or section) in this manner.


ridgeline

(architecture) The topmost edge along a roof, where its sloping sides meet.


spring line

spring lines (plural)
springing line (alternative)
springline (alternative)

(architecture) A line above which an arch starts curving inward.


cabling

en-noun

cabling (countable and uncountable, plural cablings)

(architecture) The decoration of a fluted shaft of a column or of a pilaster with reeds, or rounded mouldings, which seem to be laid in the hollows of the fluting.


zoophorous

(architecture) Alternative spelling of zoophorus.


arc-boutant

arc-boutants (plural)
arc boutant (alternative)

Unadapted borrowing from French arc-boutant.

ubor

(architecture) Synonym of flying buttress.


slype

Then he ventures down the slypes which lead between pavilions into the cloister yards.

2022, Jim Crace, eden, Picador, page 62:

(architecture) A covered passageway, especially one connecting the transept of a cathedral or monastery to the chapter house.


counterscarp

(architecture) The outer slope of a defensive or fortified ditch


ad hocism

en-noun

ad hocism (countable and uncountable, plural ad hocisms)

ad hocisms (plural)
ad-hocism (alternative)

(architecture) An eclectic style in which various separately designed elements are combined.


rood screen

rood screens (plural)
rood-screen (alternative)

The church at Randworth is without aisles, and consists of a chancel and nave only. The rood-screen proper, i.e., the arcade with panels below, is placed, as usual, between the piers of the chancel arch.

1867, Illustrations of the Rood-screen at Randworth: Published under the Direction of the Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society. Drawn and Lithographed by C[ornelius] J[ansen] W[alter] Winter, Norwich: Printed for the Society by Miller and Leavins, →OCLC, page 4:

An ancient rood screen usually, probably always, consisted of a loft from twelve to twenty feet high, and five to ten feet broad, protected by two parapets, the one towards the chancel the other towards the nave, running its entire length, sometimes quite across the church. […] The space below the loft was filled up by carved work called the rood screen, to screen off the chancel from the nave. This rood screen [in St Edmund's Church, Southwold] is all that ruthless iconoclasts have suffered to remain.

1874, “Halesworth Meeting, August 11, 1870. The Lord John Hervey, President.”, in Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archæology, and Natural History. Established March, 1848, for the Collection and Publication of Information on the Ancient Arts and Monuments of the County of Suffolk, volume IV, Bury St. Edmund's: George Thompson, bookseller, Abbeygate Street, →OCLC, page 451:

Exhibited in the treasury of Durham Cathedral are two stone relief panels, dated 1155–60, whose damaged appearance belies their significance for our understanding of the liturgical division of space in twelfth-century cathedrals[…]. Although easily overlooked, these panels belonged to what was perhaps the single most important piece of ecclesiastical furniture in the Romanesque cathedral of Durham: the rood screen. Like all Romanesque sculpture in our museums and treasuries today, these panels have been uprooted from their original, medieval context. […] The scarcity of evidence for the decorative elaboration of rood screens in the twelfth century makes the Durham panels important vestiges of a type of ecclesiastical furniture whose origin is still obscure to us.

1994, Thomas E. Russo, “The Romanesque Rood Screen of Durham Cathedral: Context and Form”, in David Rollason, Margaret Harvey, Michael Prestwich, editors, Anglo-Norman Durham, 1093–1193, Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press, →ISBN, page 251:

There are about eighty rood screens in Norfolk, which divide the chancel from the nave, most of them dating from 1450–1530, and generally made of wood and adorned with painted saints. […] Rood screens were perceived as aids to devotional meditation.

2000, Susan Signe Morrison, “The Milky Way: Women Pilgrims and Visual Art”, in Women Pilgrims in Late Medieval England: Private Piety as Public Performance (Routledge Research in Medieval Studies; 3), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 27:

The rood-screen was normally a stone or wooden partition, solid to waist-height and then pierced with openings to allow sight of the high altar, and a doorway to permit access to the officiating ministers. A great crucifix, usually supported by a heavy beam, stretched across the top of the screen.

2012, Eamon Duffy, “The Parish, Piety and Patronage: The Evidence of Rood-screens”, in Saints, Sacrilege and Sedition: Religion and Conflict in the Tudor Reformations, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 58:

(architecture, Christianity) A carved screen that separated the chancel and nave in a medieval church; it originally carried a large crucifix; an altar screen.


tsuridono

Borrowed from Japanese 釣殿, literally "fishing pavilion".

(architecture) One of a set of small pavilions connected to a tainoya by watadonos in the Japanese Court architecture of the Heian Period; used for concerts or garden viewing.


critical angle

(architecture) The angle beyond which a ramp or a set of stairs is considered uncomfortable or unsafe.


skewback

The avalanche shelter itself consists of a series of heavily reinforced arches, supported by substantial piers on the cliff-side, and on skewbacks cut deep into the rock on the other.

1943 March and April, “A British Avalanche Shelter”, in Railway Magazine, page 80:

(architecture) The side of an arch; the course of masonry on the top of an abutment with a slope for the base of the arch to rest against.


traverse

From Middle English traversen, from Old French traverser, from Latin trans (“across”) + versus (“turned”), perfect passive participle of Latin vertere (“to turn”).

(architecture) A gallery or loft of communication from side to side of a church or other large building.


lucarne

Borrowed from French lucarne, from Germanic. See below.

(architecture) A window or opening in an industrial building that supports a hoist above doors on a lower floor.


bargeboard

Not that one would realise that now, when looking at the quality of its restoration, and of the timber work, panelling, bargeboards, spandrels and cast-iron columns [...].

2021 December 15, Robin Leleux, “Awards honouur the best restoration projects: The Chairman's Special Award: Cholsey & Wallingford Railway”, in RAIL, number 946, page 54:

(architecture) Alternative spelling of barge board.


coussinet

The intrados of a simple vault is generally formed of the portion of the surface of a cylinder, cylindroid, or sphere, never greater than that of half the solid; and the springing lines of the coussinet, which terminate the walls from which the vault rises, are generally straight lines, parallel to the axis of the cylinder or cylindroid.

1830, Sir David Brewster, The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, page 523:

It is to be observed that in most of , if not in all , their bridges , the ancients did not increase the dimensions of their voussoirs from the crown towards the springing or coussinet, but made them of an equal thickness throughout; in this they were followed by Palladio, and all the Italian architects.

1839, Joseph Gwilt, A Treatise on the Equilibrium of Arches, page 79:

Investigation by analysis of the pressures and resistances of an arch, 1st . Hypothesis of a plat-band; stability at the springing charge necessary on the coussinet; stability of the plat-band on its piers; thickness of the piers.

1862, The American Journal of Education - Volume 12, page 212:

(architecture) A stone placed on the impost of a pier for receiving the first stone of an arch or vault.

The term balteus is also used by Vitruvius to denote the strap which seems to bind up the coussinet or cushion of the Ionic capital.

1842, Joseph Gwilt, An Encyclopædia of Architecture, page 929:

Many details merely painted on in the Doric order, like the leaves on the molding, the coussinet, etc., are presented plastically in the Ionic.

2013, Jacob Burckhardt, History of Greek Culture, page 152:

It has not only a carved coussinet, little ledge and plinth, but receives both to the right and left a spiral winding, and at the sides a decorative kind of cushion, wfrom which is derivedi ts title of the pulvinated capital.

2020, G.W.F Hegel, The Philosophy of Fine Art: Volume 3, page 64:

(architecture) Part of the Ionic capital between the abacus and quarter round, which forms the volute.


echinus

From Latin echīnus (“hedgehog; sea urchin”), from Ancient Greek ἐχῖνος (ekhînos).

(architecture) The rounded moulding forming the bell of the capital of the Grecian Doric style, which is of a peculiar elastic curve.

(architecture) The quarter-round moulding (ovolo) of the Roman Doric style.

(architecture) The egg-and-anchor or egg-and-dart moulding, because often identified with the Roman Doric capital.


bifora

(architecture) A window divided vertically into two openings by a small column or a mullion or pilaster; the openings are topped by round or pointed arches.


Cyclopean architecture

(architecture) Ancient masonry where walls are fitted together of huge irregular stones; architecture that is ancient and roughly composed.


cyma

head

cyma (plural cymas or cymae or cymæ or cymata)

cymas (plural)
cymae (plural)
cymæ (plural)
cymata (plural)
sima (alternative)
syma (alternative)
cima (alternative)
scima (alternative)

From New Latin cȳma (“young sprout or shoot of cabbage”) (whence the botanic usage of cyme), from Ancient Greek κῦμα (kûma, “swell, wave”, “cyma”, “sprout of a plant”), from κύω (kúō, “I conceive, I become pregnant”).
For more information, click to expand this box.
Most English coinages on this root are formed on its short stem, κῡμ- (kūm-). The fact that the Ancient Greek etymon only inflects as a third-declension neuter noun has led some writers to prescribe forms that preserve the root’s long stem, κῡματ- (kūmat-), for philological reasons (see, for example, the 1903 and 1908 citations of cymatoscope), but such forms are rare.
Latinate phrases that include cyma, namely cyma inversa, cyma recta, and cyma reversa, show that, when employed as a Latin word, cȳma is treated as a first-declension feminine noun rather than as third-declension neuter consonant-stem noun.
There are several Classical precedents, both from Latin and from Ancient Greek, for formations on the short stem (κῡμ- (kūm-)) of this root, although formations on the long stem (κῡματ- (kūmat-)) are more common in Ancient Greek; consequently, whereas formations on the long stem may be preferable, especially when combined with other Ancient Greek elements, formations on the short stem are by no means incorrect.

col-top

[…] while the double-cyma or classical curve of his mouth was not without a looseness in its close.

1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, The Woodlanders […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

(architecture) A moulding of the cornice, wavelike in form, whose outline consists of a concave and a convex line.

Kyma

architecture: wavelike moulding of the cornice


cycloidal arch

en-noun

cycloidal arch (plural cycloidal arches)

(architecture) An arch that has a cycloidal shape, wherein the span of the arch is some factor of pi*rise.


calotte

(architecture) A round cavity or depression, in the form of a cup or cap, lathed and plastered; used to diminish the rise or elevation of a moderate chapel, alcove, etc. which would otherwise be too high for other pieces of the apartment.


acropodium

(architecture) A plinth or pedestal bearing a statue


antefix

antefixes (plural)
antefixa (alternative)
antefixum (alternative)

(architecture) The vertical blocks which terminate the covering tiles of the roof of a Roman, Etruscan, or Greek temple.

(architecture) Any decoration serving to cover the ends of roofing tiles.


flanging

flanging (countable and uncountable, plural flangings)


cyme

]
Borrowed from French cime, cyme (“top, summit”), from Vulgar Latin *cima, from Latin cȳma (“young sprout of a cabbage”, “spring shoots of cabbage”), from Ancient Greek κῦμα (kûma, “anything swollen, such as a wave or billow”; “fetus”, “embryo”, “sprout of a plant”), from κύω (kúō, “I conceive”, “I become pregnant”; in the aorist “I impregnate”). For considerably more information, see cyma, which is an etymological doublet. Compare also Frankish *kīmō (“sprout”), from Proto-Germanic *kīmô, whence German Keim (“sprout”).


amphiprostyle

From Latin amphiprostȳlos, from Ancient Greek ἀμφι- (amphi-) + πρόστῡλος (próstūlos, “having pillars”).

This much being sufficiently proved; before I draw the inference in contemplation, I have next to prove, the original temple was amphiprostyle, and hexastyle.

1806, Thomas Gabb, Finis Pyramidis, page 19:

Another characteristic of amphiprostyle temples was that of their porticoes, consisting of four columns only.

1854, Robert Stuart, “Amphiprostylos”, in Cyclopedia of Architecture, volume 1, page 136:

"The Ilissos Temple is the first attested amphiprostyle temple in Greek architecture."

1993, Ira S. Mark, The Sanctuary of Athena Nike in Athens:

(architecture, chiefly historical, of a temple or edifice) Having columns at either end but not along the sides.

amfipròstil

having columns at either end but not along the sides


amphiprostyle

1819, Periptere, Abraham Rees, The Cyclopædia: Or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature, Volume 26, unnumbered page,
Peripteres were properly temples which had columns on all the four ſides; by which they were distinguished from proſtyles, and amphiproſtyles, the one of which had no columns before, and the other none on the sides.

(architecture, historical) An amphiprostyle temple or edifice.


inversion of control

(software architecture) Abstract principle describing an aspect of some software architecture designs in which the flow of control of a system is inverted in comparison to the traditional architecture, getting the flow of control from a generic code part.

obrácení řízení

abstract principle describing an aspect of some software architecture designs


dependency injection

en-noun

dependency injection (countable and uncountable, plural dependency injections)

(software architecture) A type-safe way of supplying an external dependency to a software component.

依賴注入 /依赖注入

a process of supplying an external dependency to a software component


hemicycle

(architecture) A semicircular structure.


mascaron

/ˈmæskəˌɹɒn/

(architecture) A carved, ornamental face, either human-like or grotesque, whose alleged function was originally to frighten away evil spirits so that they would not enter the building.


master plan

(architecture) A small-scale graphic outline that shows all the major elements of a project.

yleissuunnitelma

a graphic outline that shows all the major elements of a building project


blocage

(architecture) The roughest and cheapest sort of rubblework, in masonry.


GSF

(architecture) Initialism of gross square footage: the total sum of the floorspace over every level of a building.


hench

(architecture) The narrow side of chimney stack, a haunch.

(architecture) The side of an arch from the topmost part (crown) to the bottommost part (impost).


great hall

Even in castles and manor houses space was limited, and rooms including the great hall were used for other functions beyond dining.

2004, Melitta Weiss Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, →ISBN, page 156:

(history, architecture) The main room of a palace, castle or large manor house in the Middle Ages, or in a country house of the 16th and early 17th centuries.

"Now this" — he indicated the great building facing them, with a handsome flight of steps up to the open door — "this is the great hall."

2005, Philippa Gregory, The Constant Princess, →ISBN:

(history, architecture) The principal building of a manor or castle compound.


Mudéjar

Mudéjar (countable and uncountable, plural Mudéjars or Mudéjares)

Mudéjars (plural)
Mudéjares (plural)
Mudejar (alternative)

From Spanish mudéjar, from Arabic مُدَجَّن (mudajjan, “domesticated”), from the verb دَجَّنَ (dajjana, “to tame”), from دَجَنَ (dajana, “to become accustomed”).

uder

(uncountable, architecture) A style of Iberian architecture and decoration of the 12th to 16th centuries.


cantoned

a cantoned pier or pilaster

(architecture) Having the angles marked by, or decorated with, projecting mouldings or small columns.


dripstone

(architecture) A protective moulding over a door or window that allows rain to drip away from the structure.


bioclimatic

From bio- + climatic or bioclimate + -ic.

bioclimatic housing

(architecture) Focused on providing a comfortable microclimate.

βιοκλιματικός

focused on providing a comfortable microclimate


bow window

The three of us stood in the bow window and occupied ourselves in admiring the magnificent view.

1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

(architecture) A curved, bow-shaped window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building; a bay window that is curved.


apsidally

en-adv

apsidally (comparative more apsidally, superlative most apsidally)

more apsidally (comparative)
most apsidally (superlative)

The roof was terminated apsidally.

(architecture) With regard to or by means of an apse or apses


agraff

(architecture) The conical stone located in the middle of a round arch.


meros

From Ancient Greek μέρος (méros, “part”).

A triglyph consists of six parts , two and a half of which are on each side, and the meros is in the centre and constitutes one part

1882, Frederick Thomas Hodgson, The Builder's Guide, and Estimator's Price Book:

(architecture) the plain surface between the channels of a triglyph


lancet arch

(architecture) A sharp pointed arch used in doors and windows, etc. This type of architecture was peculiar to England in the 13th century.

arc apuntat

a sharp pointed arch used in doors and windows, etc.


pontine

(architecture) Of or relating to a bridge or bridges.


intervallum

en-noun

intervallum (plural intervallums or intervalla)

intervallums (plural)
intervalla (plural)

(architecture) The gap between an outer rampart and the fortress it surrounds.


Gothic arch

(architecture) An arch in the shape of ogive.


ribbed vault

(architecture) A building structure created by an intersection of two or three vaults.

volta apuntada

structure created by intersection of vaults


telamon

From Latin telamon, from Ancient Greek τελαμών (telamṓn, “pillar shaped as a male figure, strap used for carrying”).

der

(architecture) A figure of a man (often Atlas) used as a pillar for support.


remuddle

en-verb

remuddle (third-person singular simple present remuddles, present participle remuddling, simple past and past participle remuddled)

remuddles (present singular third-person)
remuddling (participle present)
remuddled (participle past)
remuddled (past)

Many survivors were badly remuddled, but several have been restored.

2004, Alice Sinkevitch et al., AIA Guide to Chicago, →ISBN, page 176:

(architecture, derogatory) To remodel a building or room in a way that obscures or destroys key aspects of the original design.


midrise

mid-rise (alternative)
mid rise (alternative)

The neighborhood is full of midrise apartment blocks.

(architecture, of a building) Neither high-rise nor low-rise; typically consisting of four to ten stories.


midrise

midrises (plural)
mid-rise (alternative)
mid rise (alternative)

A lot of new midrises have been built in this area.

(architecture) A building which is neither low-rise or high-rise.


dec.

(architecture) Clipping of decorated, a style of English Gothic architecture.


airshaft

airshafts (plural)
air shaft (alternative)
air-shaft (alternative)

There was a warren of big cabins instead, many levels opening onto walkways around a common airshaft.

1987, Gene Wolfe, chapter III, in The Urth of the New Sun, 1st US edition, New York: Tor Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 18:

Howard turned left and walked to the end of the building. Here was a narrow alleyway, which gave on the airshaft at the rear of the building.

(architecture) A vertical (or near vertical) opening (shaft) running from a courtyard to the sky, thus allowing air to circulate to high-rise apartments or offices.


bilevel

bilevels (plural)
bi-level (alternative)

They live in a little bilevel on the edge of town.

(architecture) A house with two adjacent levels that are less than a story apart.


arris

From Old French areste, from Latin arista (“beard (of grain), fishbone”). Doublet of arista.

der

(architecture) A sharp edge or ridge formed by the intersection of two curved surfaces


creasing

(architecture) A layer of tiles forming a corona for a wall.


shearwall

Lake Point Tower, world's tallest apartment building, concrete shearwall.

1988 January 22, Robert B. Johnson, “Great Moments in Structural Engineering”, in Chicago Reader:

(architecture) An element of a wall that resists lateral shear on a building


transenna

en-noun

transenna (plural transennas or transenne)

By this reversed direction of the high altars in the two churches each altar was, through the transenna, in view of the other.

1881, George Gilbert Scott, An Essay on the History of English Church Architecture:

Very pertinent relationships between these grisailles of the vegetal type and Islamic transennas have been established by Eva Frodl-Kraft, between that of Obazine with palmettes enchâssées, and a transenna from the Umayyad castle of Qasr-el Heir al Gharbi (about 727-750), today reconstructed at the National Museum in Damascus, and with a plaque, probably of Syrian origin, reused over a tomb in San Marco in Venice.

1982, Meredith P. Lillich, Studies in Cistercian art and architecture, page 134:

The transenne have simple geometrical designs—a common one consists of arching shapes suggestive of waves of water—and wherever these stone screens survive they give dim rippling or starlike lighting effects to church interiors.

2015, Margaret Visse, The Geometry of Love: Space, Time, Mystery, and Meaning in an Ordinary Church:


zoophorus

/zəʊˈɒf.əɹ.əs/

Learned borrowing from Latin zōophorus, from Ancient Greek ζωοφόρος (zōophóros).

(architecture) The frieze of a column, especially one decorated with animals.


gutta

From Middle English gutta, from Latin gutta. Doublet of gout and goutte.

(architecture) A small water-repelling, cone-shaped projection used in the architrave of the Doric order in classical architecture.


sarking

sarking (usually uncountable, plural sarkings)

Much housing work lies within this area, and to avoid high maintenance costs the Department is building many houses with plaster exteriors upon diagonal sarkings.

1947, New Zealand House of Representatives, Appendix to the Jounals of the House of Representatives of New Zealand, volume 3, page 18:

1997, Ann Ross, Jonathan Hetreed, Architect′s Pocket Book, 2011, 4th Edition, Elsevier, UK, page 248,
Sarkings are weatherproof membranes laid over rafters and below battens to draught-proof and weatherproof the roof against driving rain or powder snow that may penetrate the tiles or slates.
Traditional sarkings of reinforced bitumen felt have been largely superseded by lighter, breathable sarkings that can be laid to form an effectively draught-proof roof but still allow free dispersal of water vapour to avoid roof space condensation; such mterials generally avoid the need for eaves, ridge and roof slope ventilators. Where they are laid directly over insulation between rafters, or over a permeable sarking board, tiling battens are raised clear of the sarking by 25 x 50 counter battens nailed down to the tops of the rafters.

A house in Moorabbin listed for sale with Better House Removers would cost its buyer "about $75,000-$90,000" to move, including the house, restumping, rejoining, new roof, sarking and metal batons, and council permits, Mr Bernardo estimated.

2009 January 25, Caroline James, “Traps to avoid when relocating a home”, in Herald Sun, archived from the original on 2009-06-29:

(chiefly Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, architecture) Wood, felt, or other material placed under the shingles of a roof in order to provide support or insulation; the practice of furnishing roofs with such material; an installation of such material.


enneastyle

(architecture, of a Classical temple or other structure) Having nine columns.


heptastyle

(architecture, of a Classical temple or other structure) having seven columns


monumentalism

(architecture) A style characterized by massive, monumental buildings


megastructure

megastructures (plural)
mega-structure (alternative)
mega structure (alternative)

A fusion of architecture and city planning, megastructures were supposed to bring together mixed uses -- like housing, shopping, transportation and public space -- within a single building.

1993 April 26, Herbert Muschamp, “Pritzker Prize for Japanese Architect”, in The New York Times, page C18:

(architecture) A specific type of structure characterized by very large buildings with strictly artificial forms.


skylit

And many must applaud the design of airport terminals, also of such buildings as the one that houses the Milwaukee Repertory, according to the skylit, bared-girder doming of pre-20th-century French train stations.

1988 December 23, Gary Houston, “The Beginning of the End”, in Chicago Reader:

(architecture) Receiving all or most light from the sky


pedimented

Set on a high base, with rich marble trim, it has leaded-glass windows on either side of the door, and a sophisticated arch above the central second-floor window. Mr. Palliser gave the Brush house a complex massing, with a rounded extension on the left and pedimented gables.

2007 September 23, Christopher Gray, “Kissing Cousins at 100: Only One Shows Its Age”, in New York Times:

(architecture) Furnished with a pediment


platband

(architecture) A flat fascia on an architrave, or forming a border round a window, or a horizontal band along a wall.

(architecture) A fillet on a column, between the flutings.


ball flower

(architecture) An embellishment found on medieval buildings, consisting of a ball enclosed in the petals of a flower.


quoining

quoining (usually uncountable, plural quoinings)

Instead of inserting a straight vertical gap all the way up, he has staggered it so it looks like old-fashioned quoining.

2007 June 24, Christopher Gray, “A Preservation Handbook in a Few Short Blocks”, in New York Times:

(architecture) The architectural elements, such as stone or brick, that form a quoin.


barrel vault

(architecture) A simple roof having a curved, often semicircular cross section; used to span large distances in railway stations, churches, etc. Usually supported on columns.


piano nobile

piano nobile (plural piano nobiles or piani nobili)

piano nobiles (plural)
piani nobili (plural)

From Italian piano nobile (“noble floor”).

(architecture) The floor of a building where the principal bedrooms and main reception rooms are found, very often on the first or second floor in older buildings.


bossage

bossage (countable and uncountable, plural bossages)

(architecture) A rough, unfinished stone block, which is left projecting from the wall of a building to be later sculpted.


brise soleil

Borrowed from French brise-soleil, from briser (“to break”) + soleil (“sun”).

(architecture) A type of structural sunshade with slats, holes, etc, to keep sunlight from striking fully on a building.


bressummer

bressummers (plural)
breastsummer (alternative)
bressemer (alternative)
bressumer (alternative)
brestsummer (alternative)
breastsommer (alternative)
bressomer (alternative)

Alteration of breastsummer, from breast (“front or forward part”) + summer (“beam”).

af

Once the floor joists were in position, the framing of the next storey could continue, with a bressummer laid along their ends.

1986, R. J. Brown, Timber-Framed Buildings of England, London: R. Hale, →ISBN, page 63:

East Lodge at Queen's Park, Crewe, dates from 1887-1888. Its bressummer inscription commemorates the Jubilee of Queen Victoria and the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Grand Junction Railway.

2022 September 7, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Railway towns and a social revolution”, in RAIL, number 965, page 56, photo caption:

(architecture) A large, horizontal supporting beam which bears the weight of a wall starting on a first or higher floor, particularly when exposed or used to support a jetty (timber-frame overhang construction).


breastsummer

[…] warehouses and dwellings of solid brick and carved stone, with doors, window-frames, and breastsummers of stout oak, replaced irregular though not unpicturesque habitations; […

1885, Jospeh Fitzgerald Molloy, chapter XIX, in of Royalty Restored; Or, London Under Charles II:

(architecture) Alternative spelling of bressummer.


half-timbering

en-noun

half-timbering (countable and uncountable, plural half-timberings)

(architecture) A method of construction using heavy timber beams, usually joined by tenon and mortice joints pegged together. The spaces between the posts and beams is infilled with material such as wattle and daub, bricks or stones.


timber framing

(architecture) A method of construction using heavy timber beams, usually joined by tenon and mortice joints pegged together.