Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Ecclesiastical A stone basin with a drain for carrying away the water used in ceremonial ablutions.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A basin or tank, usually ornamental, as for a fountain or a bath; sometimes, a large shallow vase for ornamental fishes or aquatic plants; also, any tank or cistern of moderate size.
- n. Eccles., a stone basin, in old churches generally established within a canopied niche placed close to the altar, used to receive the water in which the priest washes his hands before the celebration of the eucharist, and washes the chalice after the celebration. Now rarely used in the sanctuary, but often in sacristies.
Wiktionary
- n. A drained basin near a church's altar for the disposal of water from liturgical ablutions.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Arch.) A niche near the altar in a church, containing a small basin for rinsing altar vessels.
Etymologies
- From the Medieval Latin, from Latin piscīna ("fishpond; swimming pool"), from piscis ("fish"). (1793) (Wiktionary)
- Middle English piscine, from Medieval Latin piscīna, from Latin, fishpond, pool, from piscis, fish. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“She passed over a large square opening and wondered if it could be a fish tank, what the ancients called a piscina.”
“On the large tablet above the piscina is a punning motto, _Temperantia te Temperatrice_, the person commemorated being Richard Tryce, 1767.”
“The overflow from the octagonal basin passes into a long narrow piscina, which is entered by steps at either end.”
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 7: Gregory XII-Infallability
“On the south we see the piscina, which is contained in a beautifully carved niche -- a hollow basin with a stone drain, wherein the priest washed his hands before consecrating the elements, and poured the water from the rinsed chalice.”
“In the hollow of what I have called the piscina (though it proved to be a magic seat) lay an offering of green cocoa-nuts; and when you looked up you found the boughs of the tree to be laden with strange fruit: palm-branches elaborately plaited, and beautiful models of canoes, finished and rigged to the least detail.”
“Sometimes a piscina was a subsequent addition to a structure of early date, as in the old and now demolished church of Stretton-upon-Dunsmore,”
The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture, Elucidated by Question and Answer, 4th ed.
“En le ano 1955, estavamos viviendo en Barranquilla, pues como ninos, nos gustava la piscina en la terraza, que tenia por supuesto la salidad del agua a los quatro lados, y salian de las bocas de structuras de leones.”
Global Voices in English » Colombia: Living with Flooding in Barranquilla
“Todo lo que teniamos que hacer era cerrar una, o dos de las salidas y la piscina se incrementaba.”
Global Voices in English » Colombia: Living with Flooding in Barranquilla
“By Casa lujosa con piscina frontal | Perfecto Ambiente on September 15, 2009 at 6: 01 pm”
“By HillTop House: Casa de Lujo con jardines y piscina | Safdie Rabines on June 21, 2009 at 5: 33 pm”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘piscina’.
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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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•Specific Wee, Or Sounds Like Specifi...
I'm making this list under duress by bilby. See comments on Specific Excrement and May or May Not Be Specific But Definitely Is Not Excrement.
If you really want to see them, I mean.inspissate, pissabed, premarin, lotium, wee, epistle, piston, haematuria, melanuria, fairy piss, piscina, pissant and 25 more...
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New words
Words that are new to me.
autostrada, gimlet, clyster, gravida, skelped, nacreous, susurrus, intransigent, puissant, turbid, plangent, fungible and 99 more...
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Castles and Keeps
Shamelessly ripped off from this site and others (to be named hereinafter). (Fair warning: for my own edification, I may add definitions/comments from the site, but you might want to just go there ...
abutment, adulterine, allure, angle-spur, apse, arbalest, arbalestier, arbalist, arcade, arch, armoury, arrow slit and 410 more...
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...:::bella:::...
originally started as an attempt to collect words I found visually and auditorially beautiful, as well as psychically evocative, this has become nothing more than a grab bag of word curiosities, a ...
bergamot, jambalaya, bee's knees, heliotrope, hosanna, gamboge, aureole, filial, madrigal, multilingual, sacrosanct, sojourn and 1072 more...
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Fishful thinking
"It was then that Delirium noticed that she had absent-mindedly transformed into a hundred and eleven perfect, tiny multicolored fish."
Assortment of fishy or somehow entertaining fish...piscary, fishery, hatchery, pisces, piscine, piscation, piscatorial, pescetarian, piscivorous, expiscate, expiscatory, fishmonger and 81 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for piscina.
john Means "swimming pool" in Spanish. Aug 26, 2008
chained_bear In castle architecture, a basin with a drain hole for a priest to wash his hands or vessels, usually set in a niche. Aug 26, 2008
she A fishpond; or, a stone basin for draining water used in Mass, found chiefly in Roman Catholic churches (including some pre-Reformation churches now used for Protestant worship). Aug 3, 2008