Glossary of Terms

Glossary

Bargeboard – decorated board on a gable edge or eaves line.

Bracket – angular support at eaves, doorways, and sills.

Buttress – mass of masonry or brickwork adding stability to a structure.

Columns – Doric, the simplest order of Greek architecture, plain capital, column, no base. Ionic, the second order of Greek architecture.

Corbel – projection of stone, timber, etc. jutting out from wall to support weight, or for decoration.

Cornice – ornamental moulding that projects along the top of a wall, pillar, or building around the walls of a room, just below the ceiling.

Dormer – a window in a sloping roof.

Fanlight – a small structure raised above the roof, of various shapes with windows.

Flemish Bond – bricks laid with alternate headers and stretchers in each course.

Gargoyle – a projecting water-spout grotesquely carved to throw off water from the roof.

Gothic window – narrow, vertical pointed window adapted from Gothic church design.

Parapet – a low wall along the edge of a roof.

Pediment – low triangle ornamenting the front or gable end of a building, door or window.

Portico – porch with pillars or columns.

Sidelight – glazed panels adjacent to a door.

Transom – horizontal bar between the top of a window or door and the structural opening.

Voussoir – a wedge-shaped stone used in arches.