porticus

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porticus (pl. porticus, porticuses).
1. Entrance-porch of a church.

2. Apse of a church.

3. Structure over a medieval tomb (also called porticulus).

4. Long covered ambulatory with a roof carried on colonnades, sometimes attached to a building, and sometimes a separate structure.

5. Room or side-chapel projecting from the nave of a church entered through arches in the walls of the nave, as seems to have been the case at the Anglo-Saxon church at Brixworth, Northants., where there appear to have been a series of porticus to the north and south of the nave.

6. Arched arbour (sometimes called portique) or garden-walk under a pergola.

7. As portico.

Bibliography

Goulty (1991);
Oxford English Dictionary (1933);
OED Supplement (1984);
personal knowledge

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porticus

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