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views updated Jun 11 2018

apse, apsis (pl. apses, apsides). Recess, generally semicircular on plan, and vaulted, projecting from an external wall, the interior forming a large, deep volume. It is often a feature terminating the nave of a basilica, containing the high altar. Apses forming chapels were built on the eastern sides of transepts of larger churches (e.g. Lincoln Cathedral), and some, termed apse-chapels, were arranged round a semicircular apse-aisle or ambulatory as in the complex chevet form of larger French churches. Some apses are canted rather than curved on plan.

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views updated May 18 2018

apse / aps/ • n. 1. a large semicircular or polygonal recess in a church, arched or with a domed roof, typically at the eastern end, and usually containing the altar.2. another term for apsis.DERIVATIVES: ap·si·dal / ˈapsidl/ adj.

APSE

views updated Jun 11 2018

APSE Acronym for Ada programming support environment. The PSE that was intended to be used for software development using Ada.

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views updated May 29 2018

apse a large semicircular or polygonal recess in a church, arched or with a domed roof and typically at the church's eastern end. Recorded from the early 19th century, the word comes from Latin apsis (denoting in the early 17th century the orbit of a planet), from Greek apsis, hapsis ‘arch, vault’, perhaps from haptein ‘fasten, join’).

Apse

views updated May 14 2018

Apse (Gk., apsis). The rounded end of a church, especially in Greek Orthodoxy: it is derived from the Constaninian basilicas which incorporated the pagan apsis where judges and legal advisers sat.

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views updated May 29 2018

apse arched or domed recess in a church. XIX (in L. - Gr. form apsis XVIII). — L. apsis, apsid- — Gr. hapsís vault, etc.
Hence apsidal XIX.

apsidiole

views updated May 18 2018

apsidiole. Apse-chapel, or small apsidal chapel projecting from a larger apse.

APSE

views updated Jun 11 2018

APSE (æps) Computing Ada programming support environment