Word of the day: coping

The word of the day is coping:

1. a finishing or protective course or cap to an exterior masonry wall or the like.
2. a piece of woodwork having its end shaped to fit together with a molding.

c.1600 as an architectural term, from cope (n.), the cape-like vestment worn by priests (14c.), a variant of cape. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/coping) 

"Then Ysabel sat down on the coping of the tank and smoked a cigarette with the shadows of bamboo leaves flickering over him, but by the time she thought of her sketch pad he had risen and was leading the horses and mules back through the court and under her, out of sight."

 - Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

word of the day: crenelation

The word of the day is crenelation:

 

1. any of the open spaces between the merlons of a battlement.

2. a crenature.

< Middle French, Old French, apparently diminutive of cren notch (attested since the 15th century), Old French cran, of uncertain origin (dictionary.com) 

 

 

"Were you at any time aware of an unearthly presence zigzagging along the crenelations?"

 

 - Karen Elizabeth Gordon, Torn Wings and Faux Pas

word of the day: andesite

 The word of the day is andesite:

A gray, fine-grained volcanic rock. Andesite consists mainly of sodium-rich plagioclase and one or more mafic minerals such as biotite, hornblende, or pyroxene. It often contains small, visible crystals (phenocrysts) of plagioclase. It is the fine-grained equivalent of diorite. 
1840-50; named after Andes (dictionary.com)


"McInerney showed him pictures of andesite.
"'Local rock?' Ban wanted to know.
"McInerney and Maltz had a long conversation about wood, rocks, glass, sun, and snow, during which they excitedly presented Ban with images on cameras, phones, and an iPad, and in the project book for McInerney's site."

 - Dana Goodyear, "Paper palaces: the architect of the dispossessed meets the one per cent", 11 & 18 The New Yorker

word of the day: tatami

The word of the day is tatami:

noun

1. (in Japanese houses) any of a number of thick, woven straw mats of uniform dimensions, about three feet by six feet (91 cm by 183 cm), the placing of which determines the dimensions of an interior.

1895-1900; < Japanese, noun use of v.: to fold up (dictionary.com)

"Maltz, who was also living in Japan that year, in the only tatami room in the Bans' Western-style house, started to view him as 'the Pied Piper of architecture.'"

 - Dana Goodyear, "Paper palaces: the architect of the dispossessed meets the one per cent", 11 & 18 The New Yorker 

word of the day: plexus

The word of the day is plexus:

noun

1. a network, as of nerves or blood vessels.

2. any complex structure containing an intricate network of parts

1675-85; < Neo-Latin: an interweaving, twining = Latin plect(ere) to plait, twine + -tus suffix of v. action (dictionary.com)

 

 

"On August 9th, Ban will mark the public opening of the Aspen Art Museum, his first permanent museum in the United States.  The building, a glass box nested in a lattice screen made from resin-infused paper and topped with a timber truss roof, is an astonishing plexus of materials pushed to their limits."

 

 - Dana Goodyear, "Paper palaces: the architect of the dispossessed meets the one per cent", 11 & 18 August 2014 The New Yorker