Architecture: from Prehistory to Post-Modernism (1986)

• Abacus: At the top of a capital, a thick rectangular slab of stone that serves as the flat, broad surface on which the architrave rests.
• Acanthus: A plant of the Mediterranean region, whose serrat­ed leaves were copied in stone to ornament Corinthian and Composite capitals; used also to decorate moldings and friezes.
• Acropolis: The upper citadel of a Greek city, usually the site on which important temples were erected.
• Acroteria: Sculptured figures or ornaments placed above the pediment of an ancient temple.
• Aedicule: A framing motif consisting of an entablature and pediment supported by two columns or pilasters.
• Agora: An open space or marketplace that was the center of public life in cities of ancient Greece.
• Aisle: A passage or corridor parallel to the nave of a church or an ancient basilica and separated from it by columns or piers.
• Altar: A tablelike structure for the celebration of the Sac­raments in a Christian building; for sacrifice or offerings in antiquity.
• Ambo: In early medieval churches, a raised stand from which the Gospels and Epistles were read, and from which sermons were sometimes delivered.
• Ambulatory: A semicircular or polygonal passageway around the apse of a church.
• Amphiprostyle: A Classical temple type with a portico at both its front and rear.
• Amphitheater: An oval or circular building for contests and spectacles, its central arena surrounded by rising tiers of seats and a network of corridors and stairs.
• Anta: In Classical temples, the pilasterlike projecting end of a portico wall often framing columns, which are then said to be in antis.
• Antefix: An ornament, generally of terra-cotta and in the form of a palmette, placed at the edge of the roof of an ancient build­ing to mask the ends of the roof tiles.
• Apse: A semicircular or polygonal recess at the end of a Roman basilica or a Christian church.
• Arcade: A series of arches supported on piers or columns. A “blind” arcade is a row of arches applied to the wall as an orna­mental feature.
• Arch: A structural device, curved in shape, to span an opening by means of wedge-shaped bricks or stones (voussoirs) that support each other by exerting mutual pressure and that are buttressed at the sides.
• Architrave: A square beam that is the lowest of the three hori­zontal components of a Classical entablature.
• Archivolt: A molded band carried around an arch.
• Arcuated: Any form of construction using arches.
• Arena: The open area or place of action in an amphitheater.
• Ashlar: Building stone that has been squared and finished, and the masonry constructed of such blocks.
• Atrium: 1. The open court in the center of a Roman house. 2. The open court, often surrounded by columns or arcades, in front of a church.
• Axonometric Projection: A method of drawing that represents a building three-dimensionally, with the vertical lines drawn vertically and the horizontals represented at unequal angles to the base (cf. Isometric Projection).
• Baldacchino (Baldachin): A fixed canopy over an altar or throne, projecting from a wall, suspended from above, or sup­ ported by columns or other vertical elements; also known as a ciborium.
• Baptistery: In Christian architecture, a separate building, or part of a church, used for the sacramental ceremony of recep­tion into Christianity.
• Barrel Vault: A half-cylindrical vault, semicircular or pointed in cross section; also called tunnel vault.
• Basilica: 1. In ancient Roman architecture, a large rectangu­lar building used as a tribunal or for other public purposes and generally arranged with nave, aisles, and one or more apses. 2. In Christian architecture, a longitudinal church of related form.
• Bay: A vertical compartment of a building in which several such compartments are repeated; each bay might be defined by columns, piers, windows, or vaulting units.
• Bifora: A window or gallery space divided by a colonnette into two arches (trifora: divided into three arches).
• Boss: Sculpted ornament of joints, found primarily in vaults.
• Buttress: A projecting mass of masonry serving to provide ad­ditional strength for the wall as it resists the lateral thrust exerted by an arch or vault.
• Flying Buttress: in a church, a but­ tress in the form of an arch, or set of arches, that carries the thrust of a nave vault over the side aisle roofs down to a mas­sive external pier.
• Caldarium: The hot room in a Roman bath.
• Cantilever: A self-supporting extended horizontal projection from a vertical support.
• Capital: The uppermost part of a column, usually shaped to ar­ticulate the joint with the lintel or arch supported; in Classical types, comprising an abacus, echinus, and other carved detail.
• Cartouche: An ornamental tablet with the edges formed like a curled piece of paper; generally used for inscriptions.
• Caryatid: A sculpted female figure used as a support in place of a column or pier.
• Catacomb: An underground cemetery, much used by early Christians, consisting of passages with niches for burial and small chambers for services.
• Cavetto: A concave molding generally found on cornices and generally quarter-round in section.
• Cella: The body and main sanctuary of a Classical temple, as distinct from its portico and other external parts; sometimes used synonymously with naos, the principal room of a temple where the cult statue is housed.
• Centering: Temporary wooden framework used to hold con­struction material in place until a vault or arch is self­ sustaining.
• Chancel: The eastern portion of a church set apart for the cler­gy, and often separated from the main body of the church by a screen, rail, or steps. The term is also used to describe the en­tire east end of a church beyond the crossing.
• Chevet: A French term used to describe the developed east end of a church, usually a French Gothic cathedral, with its apse, ambulatory, and radiating chapels.
• Chevron: Zigzag ornament prevalent in Anglo-Norman Ro­manesque architecture.
• Choir: The part of a church, generally located toward or in the apse, reserved for clergy and singers.
• Ciborium: See Baldacchino.
• Circus: In ancient Rome, an oblong space for horse and chariot races, often arranged with tiers of seats on three sides. In En­gland, an open space circular or semicircular in shape sur­ rounded by buildings.
• Clerestory: A part of a building that rises above adjoining roof­ tops and is pierced by window openings to admit light to the interior.
• Cloister: An open square court surrounded by a covered ambu­latory, often arcaded. It is generally attached to a church or monastery and is distinguished from a secular courtyard by its function as a place of seclusion and repose.
• Cloister Vault: A dome that rises directly from a square or polygonal base, its curved surface divided into sections by groins or ribs.
• Coffering: Recessed panels, square or polygonal, that ornament a vault, ceiling, or the underside (soffit) of an arch.
• Colossal Order: Columns or pilasters that rise through several stories; also called a giant order.
• Column: A vertical, usually cylindrical, support, commonly consisting of a base, shaft, and capital; in Classical archi­tecture, its parts are governed by proportional rules.
• Colonnette: A small or greatly attenuated, slender column.
• Composite Order: One of the five Classical orders; favored in late Roman architecture. On the capital, large, conjoined volutes are combined with the acanthus leaves of the Co an order.
• Compound Pier: A pier with columns, shafts, and attached, sometimes in clusters, to its faces.
• Concrete: Artificial stone formed by mixing cement gravel with water. Used most effectively by the ancient Romans and later revived in the sixteenth century.
• Console: A bracket or projecting support, usually scroll-shaped.
• Corbel: A masonry block projecting from a wall to a superincumbent element.
• Corbeled Arch: Masonry constructed over a wall open opening by a series of courses projecting from each side and stepped progressively further forward until they meet at midpoint; not a true arch.
• Corinthian Order: The most richly embellished of Orders (Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian) developed by with a tall capital composed of a bell-shaped core enveloped by layers of acanthus leaves terminating volutes, surmounted by a concave-sided abacus.
• Cornice: The uppermost, projecting portion of an entablature; also the crowning horizontal molding of a building or wall.
• Corona: The projecting part of a Classical cornice.
• Corps de Logis: In French architecture, the term building as distinguished from the wings and pa
• Cortile: The Italian term for courtyard, the enclosed space within a building, commonly surrounded by a covered ambula­tory defined by columns or piers.
• Crocket: In Gothic architecture, an ornamental hooklike spur of stone projecting from the sloping sides of a spire, pinnacle, or gable; also used in Gothic capitals in place of leaves and volutes.
• Cromlech: A prehistoric monument composed of a circle of huge stones (megaliths).
• Crossing: The area where the nave and transept intersect in a cruciform church, frequently surmounted by a tower or dome.
• Crypt: A vaulted space beneath the pavement of a church, of­ ten housing relics or tombs.
• Cryptoporticus: In ancient Roman architecture, a covered pas­sage or gallery defined not by columns but by walls with win­dow openings for light and air; the term also refers to a sub­ terranean passage.
• Curtain Wall: In modern architecture, a nonload-bearing wall (often constructed of materials such as glass, steel, or alumi­num) which is hung in front of the building’s structural frame.
• Cyclopean Wall: Constructed without mortar of irregular stones so huge it was later believed to be the work of a mythical race of giants called Cyclopes.
• Cyma Recta: A double-curved molding, concave in the upper part and convex below.
• Cyma Reversa: A double-curved molding, convex in the upper part and concave below.
• Cymatium: In a Classical entablature, the name given to the molding that is the top member of each subdivision.
• Dado: The intermediate portion of a pedestal, between its base and cornice.
• Decorated Style: In English Gothic architecture, the second of three phases (Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular). It flourished from the late thirteenth century through the first third of the fourteenth and was characterized by a profusion of rich curvilinear ornament, by multiple ribs and liernes, by or­nate moldings, and by the double S-curve (ogee).
• Dentil: A small toothlike block used in series in the corona of a Classical cornice.
• Diaphragm Arch: A transverse arch across the nave of a church partitioning the roof into sections.
• Dipteral: Referring to a temple surrounded by a double range of columns.
• Distyle in Antis: In a Classical temple referring to a portico with two columns between piers (antae) projecting from the cella walls.
• Dolmen: A prehistoric monument composed of two large stones placed upright with a covering stone slab, forming a chamber.
• Dome: A curved vault that is erected on a circular base and that is semicircular, pointed, or bulbous in section. If raised over a square or polygonal base transitional squinches or pen­dentives must be inserted at the corners of the base to trans­ form it into a near circle.
• Domical Vault: A rib or groin vault whose center rises dome­ like above its peripheral levels.
• Doric Order: The column and entablature developed on main­ land Greece; the fluted columnar shaft is without a base; its capital is an abacus above a simple cushionlike molding (ech­inus). The entablature has a plain architrave, a frieze com­ posed of metopes and triglyphs, and a cornice with projecting blocks (mutules). In Roman Doric, the column is slimmer than the Greek prototype, is unfluted, and stands on a low base; the capital is smaller.
• Dormer Window: A vertical window with its own gable pierced through a sloping roof.
• Drum: 1. The cylindrical or polygonal wall supporting a dome. 2. One of the cylindrical sections comprising the shaft of a column.
• Dry Masonry: Masonry laid without mortar.
• Duomo: The Italian term for a cathedral.
• Dwarf Gallery: In Romanesque architecture, a wall passage on the exterior face of a building screened by a small-scale colonnade.
• Echinus: A convex, cushionlike molding between the shaft and the abacus in the Doric or Tuscan order; in an Ionic capital, found beneath the volutes, generally in decorated form.
• Egg and Dart: A decorative molding alternating egg-shaped and dart-like forms.
• Elevation: An architectural drawing made as if projecting on a vertical plane to show any one side, exterior or interior, of a building; also used to describe the vertical plane of a building.
• Engaged Column: A column attached to or appearing to be partly embedded within a wall.
• Entablature: The upper part of a Classical order comprising architrave, frieze, and cornice.
• Entasis: The slight swelling of the vertical profile of a Classi­cal column as it tapers toward the top to counteract the illusion of concavity that accompanies straight-sided columns.
• Exedra: A semicircular recess or niche; a large apse.
• Extrados: The upper surface of an arch or vault.
• Facade: The principal exterior face of a building, usually the front.
• Fan Vault: In English Gothic architecture, a vault of conoidal form, wherein the ribs have spread out from the springing point in a way that suggests the appearance of an open fan.
• Fascia: In the architrave of an Ionic entablature, a horizontal band often used in a series of two or three, each projecting slightly beyond the one below.
• Finial: A knoblike decorative ornament, often foliate in de­ sign, at the top of a gable, pinnacle, or spire.
• Flamboyant Style: A late phase of French Gothic architecture characterized by flamelike tracery patterns.
• Fluting: The shallow concave channels cut vertically into the shaft of a column or pilaster. In Doric columns, they meet in a sharp edge (arris); in Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite col­umns, they are separated by a narrow strip.
• Foliated: Ornamented with leaflike patterns.
• Frieze: A horizontal band, sometimes painted or decorated with sculpture or moldings. It may run along the upper portion of a wall just beneath a cornice or it may be that part of a Clas­sical entablature that lies between the architrave and cornice. A Doric frieze is composed of alternating triglyphs and me­ topes; an Ionic frieze often has continuous relief sculpture.
• Gable: A triangular element. It may be the end of a pitched roof framed by the sloping sides. It also refers to the top of a Gothic panel, or to the triangular area above the portals of a Gothic building.
• Gallery: An upper story projecting from the interior wall of a building, or placed above the aisles of a church. It may function as a corridor or as an area for assembly or seating.
• Groin: The sharp, curved edge formed at the intersection of vaulting webs.
• Groin Vault: A vault formed when two barrel vaults of identi­cal size intersect at right angles (also called a cross vault).
• Guttae: Beneath each triglyph in a Doric entablature, small conical projections that may represent the wooden pegs used in the timber prototypes of the Greek temple.
• Hall Church: A church in which the nave and aisles are the same height, giving the building the appearance of a great hall.
• Heroa: Monuments, often funerary and central in plan, erected to commemorate important Roman personages.
• Hexastyle: Having six columns across the front.
• Hypocaust: An underground vaulted chamber of brick contain­ing the central heating system-usually earthen pipes through which hot air was forced-for ancient Roman houses and bath­ing establishments.
• Hypostyle: A structure-usually a large hall-in which the roof is supported by many rows of columns. The term is fre­quently applied to ancient Egyptian temples.
• Impost: In a pier, the projecting molding at the springing of an arch. A rectangular impost block transmits the weight of an arch to a supporting member; it may appear between the cap­ital of a column and the springing of the arch.
• In Antis: The term used to describe columns placed between the ends of two walls, commonly projecting from the ends of the cella of a small Greek temple.
• Intrados: The undersurface (as opposed to extrados) of an arch (or vault); also called a soffit.
• Intercolumniation: The space between adjacent columns in a colonnade, frequently determined by some multiple of the di­ameter of the column itself.
• Ionic Order: One of the five Classical orders, the Ionic is char­acterized by a scroll-shaped (voluted) capital element, the pres­ence of dentils in the cornice, and a frieze that might contain continuous relief ornament.
• Isometric Projection: A method of drawing in which a building is represented three-dimensionally, with the horizontals drawn at an equal angle to the base of the drawing while the vertical lines remain vertical (cf. Axonometric Projection).
• Keystone: The central voussoir at the top of a completed arch.
• Lancet Window: A tall, slender window with a sharply pointed arch (like a lance), common in early Gothic architecture.
• Lantern: A cylindrical or polygonal structure that crowns a dome, its base usually open to allow light to enter the area below.
• Lierne: In Gothic rib vaulting, a minor rib inserted between two major ribs springing from the wall.
• Loggia: An arcade supported by piers or columns, open on one side at least; either part of a building (as a porch) or a separate structure.
• Lunette: A semicircular wall area, or opening, above a door or window; when above the portal of a church, often called a tympanum.
• Machicolation: A defensive construction projecting from the exterior wall of a medieval building or tower and supported b corbels, with openings in the floor between the corbels through which missiles or hot liquids could be dropped on besieger .
• Mansard Roof: Named after the seventeenth-century French architect Francois Mansart, who often used the shape, a roof with a double slope all around, the lower portion longer and steeper than the upper.
• Martyrium: A structure, often of central plan, erected on a site sacred to Christianity, symbolizing an act of martyrdom or marking the grave of a martyr who died for the faith.
• Mastaba: Derived from the Arabic word meaning “bench,” mastaba refers to a type of Egyptian tomb, rectangular in shape and formed with sloping sides and a flat top, with a pas­ sage leading to an underground burial chamber.
• Megaron: The principal hall of an Aegean dwelling, oblong in shape and sometimes subdivided into a larger and smaller sec­tion by a range of columns; thought to be the ancestor of the Greek temple plan.
• Melon Dome: A dome subdivided into individual concave webs; sometimes called an umbrella dome.
• Metope: In the frieze of a Doric order, the rectangular area be­ tween triglyphs; often left plain but sometimes decorated with relief ornament.
• Mihrab: A niche hollowed out of that wall in a mosque oriented toward Mecca.
• Minaret: A tall, slender tower with projecting balconies, close to a mosque, used by the muezzin to call the faithful to prayer.
• Module: A unit of measurement used to regulate proportions in architectural design; in Classical architecture, commonly half the diameter of a column just above its base.
• Molding: A sculpted, ornamental band, carved with a dis­tinctive profile or pattern; highly developed in Classical architecture.
• Mortar: Lime cement laid between courses of masonry to even out irregularities in blocks (or bricks) and to gain greater adhesion.
• Mortice and Tenon: A method of wood joining whereby a board formed with a projecting tongue (tenon) is fitted into a board with a hole (mortise) of corresponding shape.
• Mullion: A slender upright dividing an opening, usually a win­dow, into two or more sections.
• Mutule: In the entablature of the Doric order, a rectangular slab projecting from the lower surface of the corona molding of the cornice, and above each triglyph.
• Naos: The principal enclosed area of a Greek temple, contain­ing the cult statue of god or goddess.
• Narthex: A colonnaded porch in front of the facade of a church, in early Christian architecture often serving as the fourth side of an atrium; also a transverse vestibule preceding the church nave and aisles.
• Nave: The central, longitudinal space of a basilican church, separated from the aisles or from side chapels, and extending from the main entrance to the transept or to the apse.
• Necking: A narrow ringlike molding between the bottom of a capital and the top of the shaft of a column.
• Niche: A concave recess in a wall, often used to house statuary.
• Octastyle: A Classical temple type with eight columns at the ends; or an eight-columned portico.
• Oculus: A round window.
• Ogee: An S-curved line. An ogee arch, common in English Dec­ orated and Flamboyant Gothic architecture, is a pointed arch formed with an ogee curve on each side.
• Opisthodomos: The room at the rear of a Greek temple, behind the naos.
• Opus Incertum: A Roman method of walling made by facing concrete with stones of irregular shape.
• Opus Reticulatum: A Roman method of walling made by fac­ers to form a diagonal, reticulated pattern of lozenges on the surface.
• Order: A system for the forms and relationship of elements in the column and entablature of Classical architecture according to one of five modes: Doric, Ionic, Corinthian (developed by the Greeks) and Tuscan and Composite (developed by the Romans).
• Oriel: A bay window projecting from the wall.
• Palladian Motif: A triple opening formed by a central semicir­cular arch springing from the entablature of narrower flank­ing square-headed bays, used by architect Andrea Palladio. Also known as a Serliana because it was first illustrated in the architectural treatise of 1537 by Sebastiano Serlio.
• Parapet: A low wall for protection at the edge of a balcony, ter­race, roof, bridge, etc.
• Pedestal: A supporting substructure for a column or a statue.
• Pediment: A triangular space formed by the raking cornices (sloping sides) and horizontal cornice of a gabled temple; also used above a door or window. If the apex or base is split, the pediment is described as broken.
• Pendentive: An inverted, concave, triangular piece of masonry serving as the transition from a square support system to the circular base of a dome.
• Peripteral: Pertaining to a building surrounded by a row of col­umns on all sides.
• Peristyle: A continuous colonnade around a courtyard or around the exterior of a building.
• Perpendicular Style: In English Gothic architecture, the third and last phase. It ran from the mid-fourteenth through the six­teenth centuries, emphasizing vertical and horizontal lines and repetitive paneling, and it used fan vaults.
• Piano Nobile: The principal reception and living area in an Italian palace, the first floor above the ground floor.
• Piazza: The Italian term for a city square.
• Pier: A massive vertical support often rectangular in plan and therefore differing from a column, sometimes having its own capital and base. When combined with pilasters, columns, or shafts, it is called a compound pier. Its proportions are far more variable than a Classical column. Pier is also the term used for the solid mass between windows, doors, and arches.
• Pilaster: A column in flattened, rectangular shape, projecting slightly from the face of the wall.
• Pilier Cantonne: In medieval architecture, the combination of a simple monocylindrical support and engaged colonnettes ris­ing from floor to vault.
• Pillar: A pier.
• Pilotis: A French term for stilts used to lift a structure above the ground, freeing the space at ground level for uses other than support.
• Plinth: A generally square block forming the bottom most ele­ment of a column base; or the projecting lowest portion of a wall.
• Podium: A massive platform on which an Etruscan, Roman, or other ancient building was sometimes placed.
• Portcullis: A heavy timber or iron grate that can be lowered to prevent access to a gateway or passage.
• Portico: An open, colonnaded, roofed space serving as a porch before the entrance to a building.
• Post and Lintel: A system of construction in which two or more uprights support a horizontal beam; also called trabeated.
• Pronaos: The porch in front of the cella of a Greek or Roman temple formed by the projection of the side walls and a range of columns between the projections.
• Propylaeum: A monumental entrance gateway to a temple precinct, as on the Acropolis in Athens.
• Proscenium: The stage of an ancient Greek or Roman theater.
• Prostyle: A Classical temple having columns across the front, set in a line forward of the side walls of the cella.
• Pylon: In ancient Egyptian architecture, the sloping, tower­ like walls flanking the entrance to a temple.
• Qiblah: The wall oriented to Mecca in a mosque, containing the mihrab niche.
• Quoin: Large stone or block laid at the corner of a building (or at an opening) used either for reinforcement of the angle or for ornament.
• Reinforced Concrete: Concrete that is strengthened by steel rods and mesh implanted inside before the concrete hardens.
• Revetment: The facing of a surface, usually a wall, with stone for ornamentation or protection.
• Rib: A slender, projecting arched member of a vault, used to fa­cilitate its construction, reinforce its structure, or articulate its form in varying ways in Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Gothic, and Baroque architecture.
• Rose Window: A large, circular window with tracery arranged like the spokes of a wheel or other radial patterns, commonly found in Gothic facades.
• Rubble Masonry: Walling with coarse stones irregular in size and shape imbedded in thick mortar and not placed in regular courses.
• Rustication: Masonry with massive, strongly textured or rough-hewn blocks and sharply sunk joints, distinguished from smooth ashlar.
• Scotia: A concave molding used as the intermediate part of a base.
• Serliana: See Palladian Motif.
• Shaft: The cylindrical body of a column between capital and base.
• Spandrel: The triangular area between adjoining arches, or the triangular area next to a single arch.
• Spire: A tall pointed termination of a tower or roof.
• Splay: The widening of windows, doorways, and other openings by slanting the sides.
• Springing: The point from which an arch or vault springs or rises from its supports.
• Squinch: A small arch, or sometimes a lintel, thrown across the angle of a square or polygon to make them more nearly round and thus able to receive the circular base of a dome or drum.
• Stoa: 1. In Greek architecture, a long narrow building with an open colonnade in place of one of the long walls. 2. A detached colonnade or portico.
• Stringcourse: A continuous, projecting horizontal course of masonry, usually molded, running along the surface of a wall, to mark an architectural subdivision.
• Stylobate: The continuous platform of masonry on which a col­onnade rests; the uppermost level of the stepped base (crepi­doma) of a Greek temple.
• Tablinum: In ancient Roman houses, a room or recess at the far end of the atrium, used for keeping family records.
• Tambour: Relating to something of a cylindrical, or drum, shape, such as the base of a dome, or the core of the Corinthian or Composite capital.
• Thermae: Roman bathing establishments usually of great size and consisting of bathing rooms of varied heat intensity and facilities for exercise and relaxation.
• Tholos: In Greek architecture, a circular building; also in My­cenaean architecture, a circular tomb of beehive shape.
• Thrust: The outward force exerted by an arch or vault.
• Tierceron: In Gothic vaulting, a secondary or intermediate rib springing between the main diagonal and transverse ribs.
• Torus: A large convex molding found principally at the base of a column.
• Trabeated: An architectural system using a horizontal beam over supports, as opposed to an arched or arcuated system; syn­ onymous with post and lintel.
• Tracery: Ornamental intersecting stonework in Gothic win­dows, panels, and screens of Gothic buildings; also used on the surface of late Gothic vaults. Varied techniques and patterns are given names such as plate tracery (built up in coursed lay­ers like the framing walls), bar tracery (constructed of complex fragments of the total pattern), flowing tracery (seemingly freehand, curvilinear design, though compass-drawn), etc.
• Transept: In a basilican church, the arm that crosses the nave at right angles, usually separating it from the apse; twin tran­sept arms may also project from the nave without interrupting it.
• Triconch Plan: Of trefoil or cloverleaf shape.
• Triforium: An arcaded wall passage in a Gothic nave wall, be­ tween the clerestory and the main arcade in a three-story ele­vation; in a four-story elevation, it appears between the gallery and the clerestory.
• Tufa: A soft, porous building stone.
• Tuscan Doric Order: Developed by the Romans from the Greek Doric, it stands on a base, has an unfluted shaft, and its capital is a reductive version of the prototype.
• Triglyph: In a Doric frieze, the projecting block marked by ver­tical grooves (glyphs) between the rectangular areas known as metopes.
• Tumulus: A mound of earth surmounting ancient tombs.
• Vault: An arched ceiling or roof made of stone, brick, or con­crete (cf. barrel vault, groin vault, fan vault).
• Volute: Ornament in the form of a spiral scroll, and the princi­pal feature of the Ionic capital.
• Voussoir: A wedge-shaped stone used in the construction of an arch or vault.
• Westwork: In a Carolingian or Romanesque church, the tower­ like west end, often containing an entrance vestibule sur­ mounted by a large room open to the nave.

Source Citation

Trachtenberg, Marvin and Isabelle Hyman. Architecture: from Prehistory to Post-Modernism. New York City, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1986.