the.com/porch
The threshold where you're outside the house but still inside your own kingdom.
means A covered structure attached to the front or entrance of a building, often open or partly enclosed, where you can sit, shelter, or greet visitors.
from From Old French 'porche,' descending from Latin 'porticus' (a covered colonnade or gallery), built on 'porta,' meaning gate or entrance. So a porch is, at root, a 'doorway dressed up' — the same Latin 'porta' that gives us 'portal' and 'port.' The threshold idea is baked right into the bricks.
- word origin
- From Latin porticus, the same root as portico
- rocking ritual
- Southern porch swings predate air conditioning as social cooling
- piracy term
- Porch piracy is now a recognized FBI-tracked crime
- sleeping porches
- Screened porches were prescribed to fight tuberculosis
- liminal magic
- Neither indoor nor outdoor, the law's gray zone
monticello's front portico — thomas jefferson's iconic neoclassical porch at his virginia home, designed 1768-1809
mount vernon's piazza — george washington's 90-foot columned porch overlooking the potomac river, built 1774-1787
charleston row house piazzas — multi-story side porches typical of 18th-19th century charleston, south carolina architecture