Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A slight convexity or swelling, as in the shaft of a column, intended to compensate for the illusion of concavity resulting from straight sides.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In architecture, the swelling or outward curve of tho profile of tho shaft of a column. The entasis exists in perfection in the finest examples of Greek Doric, in which the swelling is greatest a little below the middle point of the shaft, but never so great as to interfere with the steady diminution of the shaft from the base upward. The entasis is designed both to counteract the optical illusion which would cause the profiles of the shafts to appear curved inward if they were bounded by straight lines, and to give the effect of life and elasticity to the column in its function of supporting superimposed weight.
- n. In pathology, constrictive or tonic spasm, as cramp, lockjaw, etc. See tetanus. Also entasia.
Wiktionary
- n. architecture A slight convex curvature introduced into the shaft of a column for aesthetic reasons, or to compensate for the illusion of concavity.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Arch.) A slight convex swelling of the shaft of a column.
- n. (Med.) Same as Entasia.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a slight convexity in the shaft of a column; compensates for the illusion of concavity that viewers experience when the sides are perfectly straight
Etymologies
- Latin, from Ancient Greek έντασις (entasis, "tension, straining"), from εντείνω (enteino, "to stretch or strain tight"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin, from Greek, tension, from enteinein, to stretch tight : en-, intensive pref.; see en-2 + teinein, to stretch. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The ancient Greeks used a technique known as entasis which incorporates a slight convexity in the columns of the Parthenon to compensate for the illusion of concavity created by parallel lines.”
EXTRALIFE – By Scott Johnson - Really cool collection of Illusions and Paradoxes
“Beard is rather dismissive of their optical sophistication, shown in the curvature of the stylobate and in the entasis of the columns — the slight outward swelling of a column designed to counter the optical illusion of concavity, were the columns 'sides to be perfectly straight.”
“And they are an illustration of what was a marked characteristic of all classic architecture, which shows a slight curvature or entasis in its long lines.”
“This peculiarity is a convexity, or _entasis_, as it is called, on the inner faces.”
“The exaggeration in the entasis of the archaic column disappears, its tapering was diminished, its height increased, and the overhang of the capitals reduced, till in the Theseion (465 B. C.) and the Parthenon (450-438 B. C.) we reach the final inimitable type.”
“The entasis from the temple of Mars Ultor in Rome compared with”
“The entasis as given by Fra Giocondo in the edition of 1511. 2.”
“With regard to the enlargement made at the middle of columns, which among the Greeks is called [Greek: entasis], at the end of the book a figure and calculation will be subjoined, showing how an agreeable and appropriate effect may be produced by it.”
“These provide the slight entasis to the outline which is found in so many spires, as it is in classic columns, and is designed to correct the appearance of hollowness which would occur in so long a straight line.”
The Churches of Coventry A Short History of the City & Its Medieval Remains
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘entasis’.
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phrontistery - e
from phrontistery.info
eagre, earing, earwig, easement, eau-de-nil, ebberman, ebeneous, ?boulement, ebriection, ?brillade, ebrious, ebullioscope and 616 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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Columniation
A list of terms pertaining to columns employed in architecture.
hypostyle, peristyle, columniation, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, base, shaft, capital, entablature, architrave, frieze and 78 more...
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Columns
columns, column, doric, ionic, newspaper, advice, sports, feature, cortical, vertebral, ammunition, tuscan and 11 more...
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1459 more...
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spicolli's Words
terrapin, ravenous, fuck, sepulchral, garlic, suss, queer, curmudgeon, foodie, intricate, omphalos, subversion and 534 more...
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It Has a Name??
Yes. Yes it does.
aglet, armsaye, scroop, rowel, ferrule, rasceta, chanking, philtrum, frenulum, keeper, agelast, punt and 285 more...
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Collage's Words
subtle, calamity, impale, qat, painterly, piebald, surly, nihilistic, repine, slake, larder, sepulchre and 349 more...
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bloodworm's list
These are words that I enjoy because they are unique, rare, long, or just cool.
circumlocution, hysteresis, schadenfreude, quixotic, loquacious, ennui, sesquipedalian, defenestrate, obfuscate, syzygy, ubiquitous, superfluous and 231 more...
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looked up
Words I've come across while reading and looked up in the dictionary.
deesis, pendentive, revetment, aedicule, stemma, patera, ephod, entrepot, corbel, exedra, volute, archivolt and 1408 more...
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fbharjo's Words
jumelle, kef, kenspeckle, lautitious, essentic, pilpulistic, impavid, cicurant, clou, chrysostomic, miasma, teleology and 1625 more...
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The word collector
My collection of words that are intriguing, but don't fit my other lists.
snailery, aplasia, postulant, aigrette, caravel, frigate, capeskin, suffusion, schist, varlet, sepulchral, anisotropy and 320 more...
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bayesian's Words
triangulate, dissemble, parsimonious, trickle, piscine, pulcritude, persiflage, glimmer, descant, munificent, entablature, embonpoint and 52 more...
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SCRABBLE - Satine, 6-letter stems
The only letters without a "satine" bingo possibility: J, Q, Y
zeatins, zaniest, sextain, antisex, waniest, tawnies, vainest, natives, naivest, sinuate, aunties, satinet and 55 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for entasis.
knitandpurl "Fātima steps over those motionless bodies caught up in what they're protesting; following in Fātima's footsteps, I enter the high-ceilinged room, airy and light, slender columns, exaggerated by entasis, shaft topped by a capital, a typically Tunisoise interpretation of composite order, the capital itself topped by a tall impost."
Talismano by Abdelwahab Meddeb, translated by Jane Kuntz, p 173 of the Dalkey Archive Press paperback Oct 1, 2011
bilby Bugger. I prefer my illusions undisturbed. Jan 4, 2008