the.com/cornice
the crown that struts along a building's brow, half decoration, half raincoat for stone.
means A cornice is the projecting horizontal molding that crowns a building, wall, or piece of furniture, both finishing the edge and throwing rainwater clear of the surface below.
from From Italian 'cornice,' meaning a ledge or projecting frame, which English borrowed in the 1500s through French. Beyond Italian the trail forks: some link it to Latin 'coronis' (a finishing flourish) and Greek 'korōnis' (a curved line or crowning stroke), a cousin of the word that also gives us 'crown' — fittingly, since a cornice is precisely the crown of a wall. Others suspect a tangle with Latin 'cornix,' a crow, perhaps for the beak-like jut of the molding. The crown story sits better with the meaning, but the honest answer is the roots are debated.
- ancient origin
- Greek temples wore them millennia ago
- deadly cousin
- snow cornices overhang cliffs, collapsing on climbers
- hidden job
- flings rainwater clear of the wall below
- word root
- Italian for ledge or crow's bill
- interior version
- plaster cornices hide curtain rails indoors
corniche of beirut — waterfront promenade in beirut, lebanon, stretching along the mediterranean sea
corniche of alexandria — famous seaside boulevard in alexandria, egypt, built during the 19th century
corniche doree — golden cornice along the sorgue river in pernes-les-fontaines, france