Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A series of columns surrounding a building or enclosing a court.
- n. A court enclosed by columns.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In architecture, a range or ranges of columns surrounding any part, as the cella of a Greek temple, or any place, as a court or cloister, or the atrium of a classical house. See cuts under Greek and opisthodomos.
Wiktionary
- n. colonnade surrounding a courtyard, temple, etc.
- n. A courtyard; the space surrounded by a colonnade.
- n. A porch surrounded by columns.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Arch.) A range of columns with their entablature, etc.; specifically, a complete system of columns, whether on all sides of a court, or surrounding a building, such as the cella of a temple. Used in the former sense, it gives name to the larger and inner court of a Roman dwelling, the
peristyle . See colonnade.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a colonnade surrounding a building or enclosing a court
Etymologies
- From French péristyle, from Classical Latin peristȳlum, peristȳlium, from Ancient Greek περιστύλιον (peristūlion), περίστυλον, noun use of the neuter form of περίστυλος ("surrounded by columns"), from περί (peri) + στῦλος (stūlos, "pillar"). (Wiktionary)
- French péristyle, from Latin peristȳlum, from Greek peristūlon, from neuter of peristūlos, surrounded by columns : peri-, peri- + stūlos, pillar. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The body of it is adorned with twenty columns engaged in the wall, and the peristyle, which is open, with ten detached pillars that support the entablature.”
“In the peristyle is a semicircular fountain, on the margin of which were disposed several animals in bronze, representing a hunting scene.”
“That close to the gate, called the House of the Triclinium, derives its name from a large triclinium in the centre of the peristyle, which is spacious and handsome, and bounded by the city walls.”
“In the peristyle was a large earthenware jar, which had been broken across the middle and the pieces then sewed carefully and laboriously together with wire.”
“On the north side of the peristyle is a double portico containing the _exedrae_, or seats of the sophists, where each most cunning rhetorician delivered his opinions _ex cathedrâ_, and lay in wait for any passer whom he could insnare into an argument.”
“If surrounding a building or court, it is called a peristyle; when projecting beyond the line of the building a portico.”
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 4: Clandestinity-Diocesan Chancery
“In the corridor surrounding the peristyle were the names and portraits of all the pharaohs from Menes the first ruler of Egypt to Ramses XII In the hypostyle, or hall for nobles, the geography and statistics of Egypt were presented pictorially, also the subject nations.”
The Pharaoh and the Priest An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt
“The columns and wall at the extreme end of the peristyle were a mass of ruins, through the gigantic rents of which loomed a grassy hillock, its sides partially covered with clumps of furze.”
“This was most evident in the neglected peristyle or temple that was once revered as sacred space where community gathered.”
The Huffington Post: Gina Athena Ulysse: Haiti's Vodou: A World Of Wonder And Surrender
“And in its latest move to disassociate itself from Mr. Bush, USC removed his jersey from the peristyle steps of the Colisseum before Saturday's home opener against Virginia.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘peristyle’.
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G[r]eek
A collection of words found in English that are either purely Greek or have Greek etymology.
Please add with caution and certainty. Will be regularly updated by me.etymology, philosophy, laconic, disharmony, patriarchic, archaic, phlogiston, aether, aeon, angel, arachnid, rhythm and 346 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 11184 more...
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phrontistery - p
from phrontistery.info
pustule, purulence, pushful, purser, purpureal, putative, purpure, purpresture, purloin, purline, purlieu, purlicue and 1766 more...
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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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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 & Rows
Wordnik is organized as columns.
What a row!peripteral, peristyle, orthostichy, pseudo-dipteral, ployment, indentation, plinth, stylobate, balustrade, chine, trompe, telamon and 75 more...
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Mat8iou's interesting words
Words I've come across & want to remember.
bloviation, elginism, panegyric, infandous, boke, pangram, quine, pareto principle, panopticon, snib, escutcheon, bokeh and 129 more...
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Infinite Jest
Words taken from Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
prorector, monograph, post-fourier, snuffle, rototremble, creatus, enfilade, subanimalistic, balletic, espadrilles, leonine, cirri and 1153 more...
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Madame Bovary
Some good words (chiefly French of origin, and often to do with the medical profession) encountered reading the Aveling translation -- mostly new to me, but a few words that are just worthy of bein...
tulle, argand, friable, corolla, lives of stir, difficile, rime, inveigh, feuilleton, peristyle, refulgence, wainscoting and 98 more...
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lee_d's Words
neologism, epicaricacy, chillax, arrears, locution, ressentiment, facticity, glib, escritoire, epicurian, alacrity, arbitrageur and 150 more...
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wordsmith III: revenge of wordie
sedimentary, igneous, segment, surfeit, unctuous, magma, garble, ransack, concubine, coincide, metamorphic, clastic and 208 more...
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Clearinghouse
For stuff to simply reside.
calcar, pinion, espadrille, antipodes, peregrine, cormorant, tanager, vireo, farrago, undervest, passerine, oscine and 881 more...
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Words of Standing
steed, stool, estancia, stage, stance, staunch, stanch, stanchion, stanza, stative, stator, stay and 180 more...
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richardr's Words
marmoreal, osteology, tyromancy, metalepsis, idioglossia, tapinosis, epicaricacy, carromancy, rogation, senex, aulic, gemütlichkeit and 279 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, P
pellucid, pertain, pampas, prate, pinecone, philistine, pantocrator, papaverine, postmeridian, potlatch, pharology, pinniped and 622 more...
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You May Tell Yourself, "This Is Not M...
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cornice, balustrade, dado, bargeboard, buttress, clerestory, crenellation, cupola, corbel, dentil, vergeboard, quatrefoil and 101 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for peristyle.
tsuomela It happens on a day you can remember: up a wide, hummocky gully in Idaho, with rockhounds staring through hand lenses beneath a sky streaming with peristyles of sunlight, then ragged with dark clouds spitting real snow, the aspen leaves flickering lightdark, lightdark, lightdark, hyper-real. by Christopher Cokinos at http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/268/ May 12, 2007