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Origin and history of architecture

architecture(n.)

1560s, "the art of building," especially of fine or beautiful building; "tasteful application of scientific and traditional rules of good construction to the materials at hand," from French architecture, from Latin architectura, from architectus "master builder, chief workman" (see architect). The meaning "buildings constructed architecturally" is from 1610s.

also from 1560s

Entries linking to architecture

architect(n.)

"person skilled in the art of building, one who plans and designs buildings and supervises their construction," 1560s, from French architecte, from Latin architectus, from Greek arkhitekton "master builder, director of works," from arkhi- "chief" (see archon) + tekton "builder, carpenter" (from PIE root *teks- "to weave," also "to fabricate").

Old English used heahcræftiga "high-crafter" as a loan-translation of Latin architectus. Middle English had architectour "superintendent." Extended sense of "one who plans or contrives" anything is from 1580s.

architectural(adj.)

"pertaining or relating to architecture or the art of building; according to the principles of architecture," 1759; see architecture + -al (1). Related: Architecturally.

viatecture(n.)

"civil engineering," 1841, proposed ["Irreg." - OED 1989] by Roswell Park in "Pantology;" see via + architecture.

WE propose the term Viatecture, as nearly synonymous with Civil Engineering, to include the construction of roads and bridges, railroads, and canals, and water works; and the improvement of rivers and harbors. [Park]

He wrote that civil engineering was an 18c. term meant to distinguish the work from military, but the word in either case applied to machines, and he proposed viatecture "to include a more limited and distinct range of objects all of which properly be comprehended as arts of conveyance."

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    ogee
    in architecture, "an S-shaped molding," 1670s, said to be from a corruption of French ogive "diagonal rib of a vault" of...French architecture, earlier augive, a word of unknown origin....
    frieze
    "sculptured horizontal band in architecture," 1560s, from French frise, originally "a ruff," from Medieval Latin frisium...
    Stoa
    in Greek architecture, the Great Hall or portico at Athens, c. 1600, from Greek stoa "colonnade, corridor" (from PIE root...
    pendentive
    in architecture, "one of the triangular segments of the lower part of a hemispherical dome left by the penetration of the...
    peristyle
    in architecture, "a range or ranges of columns surrounding any part or place," 1610s, from French péristyle "row of columns...
    Ionic
    "pertaining to Ionia or the Ionians," 1570s of music; 1580s of architecture, from Latin Ionicus, from Greek Ionikos (see...
    wedding
    .; wedding cake is recorded from 1640s, as a style of architecture from 1879....
    discipline
    c. 1200, "penitential chastisement; punishment for the sake of correction," from Old French descepline "discipline, physical punishment; teaching; suffering; martyrdom" (11c., Modern French discipline) and directly from Latin disciplina "instruction given, teaching, learning, kno
    edifice
    late 14c., from Old French edifice "building" (12c.), from Latin aedificium "building," from aedificare "to erect a building," from aedis, variant of aedes "temple, sanctuary," usually a single edifice without partitions, also, in the plural, "dwelling house, building," originall
    building
    c. 1300, "a structure;" late 14c., "act or process of constructing;" verbal noun from build (v.). Building-block is attested from 1846 as "one of a set of children's play blocks;" 1849 as "temporary support on which a ship's keel rests while the ship is being constructed;" 1856 a

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