Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A decorative molding carried around an arched wall opening.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An ornamental molding or band of moldings on the face of an arch following the contour of the extrados; an arch-molding. Also called architrave. Archivolt is sometimes incorrectly used for soffit. The term is applied specifically to the arches of any arched construction, upon which, as upon the architrave in columnar construction, rests the weight of the superimposed portion of the edifice. Viollet-le-Duc.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The architectural member surrounding the curved opening of an arch, corresponding to the architrave in the case of a square opening.
- n. More commonly, the molding or other ornaments with which the wall face of the voussoirs of an arch is charged.
Etymologies
- Italian archivolto or French archivolte (French, from Italian) : arco, arch (from Latin arcus) + volta, vault (from Latin volūta; see vault1).
Examples
“The archivolt that sat above the twenty-foot entrance was inlaid with exquisite gold Arabic calligraphy and the monograms of Sultans Mehmed II and Abdul Aziz I.”
“An early 12th century church archivolt has an Arthurian scene, perhaps carved by a Breton, that labels Guinevere as 'Winlogee.”
“The same team also produced a plaster cast of the archivolt of the first and second niche of the fountain's back wall, of which many parts are missing, to serve as a model for carving these elements.”
Interactive Dig Sagalassos 2003 - Restoration & Conservation Report 5
“The completion of the almost completely newly carved second archivolt from the left by Eva Leplat and Mehmet Özkavak.”
“Our stone carvers Sinan Ilhan and Eva Leplat, assisted by Mehmet Özkavak, continued to carve missing elements of some of the Corinthian capitals and bead-and-reel decorations of the completely new second archivolt.”
“This week the carving of missing voussoirs or archivolt blocks belonging to the first arch of the back wall started as well.”
“Stone carvers Eva Leplat and Mustafa Özkavak are constantly busy with carving the decoration of the almost completely new second archivolt, which was positioned a few weeks ago.”
“After the placement of the new blocks, the arch is now ready for the last missing archivolt -- the keystone.”
“This week, the second archivolt of the building consisting of six new voussoirs and three original ones was rebuilt in a preliminary way.”
“Center, two joined and partially completed voussoirs of the first niche's archivolt.”
Interactive Dig Sagalassos - Anastylosis Projects - Antonine Nymphaeum Report 3
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘archivolt’.
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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OvoloOvoloOvoloOvoloOvoloOvolo
Decorative trims and moldings and their elements, from room-scale to whole-building-scale, including, of course, ovolo.
egg and dart, echinus, drip cap, fluting fillet, rosette, scotia, screen molding, picture rail, chair rail, quarter-round, crown molding, bandelet and 52 more...
yarb The perceptual possession of a unit of space is practically instantaneous when, for example, an expert driver's eye takes in a highway symbol - the black mouth and neat archivolt within a red triangle...
- Nabokov, Ada, or Ardor Jun 5, 2008