Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A quadrangular opening in the roof over the atrium or court of ancient Roman houses. The roof was made to slope toward the compluvium, so as to collect the rain-water in a basin or tank in the middle of the atrium. See
atrium and impluvium.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Arch.) A space left unroofed over the court of a Roman dwelling, through which the rain fell into the
impluvium or cistern.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun architecture A space left
unroofed over thecourt of adwelling inAncient Rome , through which the rain fell into theimpluvium orcistern .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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It was lighted by an opening in the roof, called the compluvium, the roof sloping so as to throw the rain-water into a cistern in the floor called the impluvium.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 2: Assizes-Browne 1840-1916 1913
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Thence he passed into a huge atrium whose impluvium pool beneath the compluvium in the roof shimmered mirrorlike from an overhead sun.
Antony and Cleopatra Colleen McCullough 2007
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Thence he passed into a huge atrium whose impluvium pool beneath the compluvium in the roof shimmered mirrorlike from an overhead sun.
Antony and Cleopatra Colleen McCullough 2007
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The northern half of the mansion is occupied by a representative wing, containing an Italian-style atrium (room XLV) with a compluvium, a roof opening sloping inside, and an impluvium, a water basin collecting rain water below it.
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The tuff column and two column bases exposed last week might suggests that the impluvium had been surrounded by four columns at its corners, supporting the entablature for an opening in the roof (compluvium).
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Light floods through the roof's compluvium, and the multicolored marble surrounding a bubbling fountain sparkles.
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Had the weather been less unnaturally cold, they might have remained there, since it was well past dinnertime, but the open rectangle of the compluvium in the roof was acting like a vortex, and the pool below it was a twinkling crust of rapidly melting snowflakes.
Fortune's Favorites McCullough, Colleen, 1937- 1993
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The roof around the compluvium was edged with a row of highly ornamented tiles, called antefixes, on which a mask or some other figure was moulded.
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The compluvium also was ornamented with a row of triangular tiles called antefixes, on which a mask or some other object was moulded in relief.
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In the Tuscan, the girders that cross the breadth of the atrium have crossbeams on them, and valleys sloping in and running from the angles of the walls to the angles formed by the beams, and the rainwater falls down along the rafters to the roof-opening (compluvium) in the middle.
The Ten Books on Architecture Vitruvius Pollio
whichbe commented on the word compluvium
An opening in the center of a roof of a Roman atrium to admit light. (From ArtLex)
June 5, 2008