Open Vocabulary, a sourcebook table of contents
Angle Ground Archway Interior, Atrium Joint Blueprint Layers Boundary Levels Building Liminal Cantilever Line Ceiling Mapping Circulation Materials Corner Ornament Crawlspace Room Curve Scale Cusp Shadow Door Surface Dwelling Threshold Fabrication Ventilation Façade Vertex Fold Wa l l s Gravity Wasteland Grid Window
angle
Architectural Definition A partially enclosed area of a building, possibly formed by a structural projection.
Secondary Definition A specific line of attack or approach to solving a problem.
Etymology Angle – angulus (Latin: angle, corner) – ankylus (Greek: to bend) – anguere (Latin: to compress, fold, strangle) – anka (Lithuanian: loop), ankah and angam (Sanskrit: hook, bent; limb)
Image
Incursion As if you projected yourself. As if you thought in terms of subtraction and addition from the circular or the triangular. As if you were wholly numerical and calculated. As if you hid in pitch and slant and a hundred other names for physical distractions. As if you were the elemental. Projecting towards the ocean or the stars or the gutters. As if you were not the tool but the child of the tool, the passing digits. As if you granted shelter or limitation or overhang. As if your pieces hang over. Precise in strange ways. As if the neatness is the thing. As if your failing was ultimate and didn’t line up just right. As if you were unguessable and only mediated by instruments. archway
Architectural Definition from dictionary.com …
noun Architecture. 1. an entrance or passage under an arch. 2. a covering or enclosing arch.
from Wikipedia.com …
An archway is another name for an arch.
An arch is a structure that spans a space and supports structure and weight above it. Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture and their systematic use started with the Ancient Romans who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.
Secondary Definition from wikipedia …
Arch (disambiguation)
An arch is a curved structure capable of spanning a space while supporting significant weight. It may also refer to the act of arching, or curving, an object such as the human back.
Archway (solitaire)
Archway is a solitaire card game using two decks of 52 playing cards. Its goal is to bring all 104 cards into the foundation.
The game starts by placing one of each ace (A♥, A♠, A♦, A♣) and one of each king(K♥, K♠, K♦, K♣) at the bottom of your playing area. These cards will be your foundation. At the middle of the playing area, the tableau is created by randomly dealing 4 columns of 12 cards all face up.
All the remaining cards are placed in one of the 13 reserve piles that are placed like an archway around the tableau. Each of the reserve piles corresponds to the face value of a card; the aces will be the first one on the left side, the kings will be the first one on the right side, and the 7 will be at the top of your archway.
The goal is to move cards from the tableau and the reserve piles to the foundation to form 4 piles from ace to king (1 for each suit) and 4 piles of king to ace (1 for each suit). Any reserve card can be moved from the reserve pile to the foundation as long as the card is the next in the foundation suite. Only the top most card of a tableau pile can be moved to a foundation pile. If a tableau pile is empty, any card can be place at the location of the empty pile.
The game is won when all eight foundation pile count 13 card each, each pile containing only one suite and all cards in order, from aces to kings or from kings to aces. The game is lost when no more moves are possible and the foundations are not completed. Etymology from the Online Etymology Dictionary…
arch (n.) c.1300, from Old French arche “arch of a bridge” (12c.), from Latin arcus “a bow” (see arc). Replaced native bow (n.1). Originally architectural in English; transferred by early 15c. to anything having this form (eyebrows, etc.).
“arcus ‘a bow’” Old English bugan “to bend, to bow down, to bend the body in condescension,” also “to turn back” (class II strong verb; past tensebeag, pp. bogen), from Proto-Germanic *bugon (cf. Dutch buigen, Middle Low German bugen, Old High German biogan, Germanbie- gen, Gothic biugan “to bend,” Old Norse boginn “bent”), from *beugen, from PIE root *bheug- (3) “to bend,” with derivatives referring to bent, pliable, or curved objects (cf. Sanskrit bhujati “bends, thrusts aside;” Old High German boug, Old English beag “a ring”). The noun in this sense is first recorded 1650s. Related: Bowed; bowing. Bow out “withdraw” is from 1942.
“to bend the body in condescension” condescend (adj.) mid-14c., “to yield deferentially,” from Old French condescendere (14c.) “to agree, con- sent, give in, yield,” from Late Latin condescendere “to let oneself down,” from Latin com- “together” (see com-) + descendere “descend” (see descend). Sense of “to sink willingly to equal terms with inferiors” is from mid-15c.
descend (v.) c.1300, from Old French descendre (10c.) “descend, dismount; fall into; originate in,” from Latin descendere “come down, descend, sink,” from de- “down” (see de-) + scandere “to climb,” from PIE root *skand- “jump” (see scan (v.)). Sense of “originate” is late 14c. in English. Related: Descended; descending.
or Arch Arc Spark Fireworks Incursion The mouth opened and was an archway, as if you were to accept it as a viable entrance into rooms with walls and wallpaper. The entryway erects itself with an O sound, and is an access point, to be sure, but its rooms, traveling the arc of the back, are soft-wet and elastic; some say uninhabitable. Whether or not that is the case, is it relevant to the lift and curve overhead, where it leads? atrium
Architectural Definition from Wikipedia …
In modern architecture, an atrium (plural: atria or atriums) is a large open space, often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, usually situated within a larger multistory building and located immediately beyond the main entrance doors. Atria are a popular design feature because they give their buildings a “feeling of space and light”. Fire control is an important aspect of contemporary atrium design due to criticism that poorly designed atria could allow fire to spread to a building’s upper stories more quickly.
Secondary Definition from The Free Dictionary, Websters…
An anatomical cavity or passage atria/atrium cordis: The heart has four chambers. The right and left atria are at the top of the heart and receive returning blood from the veins. The right and left ventricles are at the bottom of the heart and act as the body’s main pumps. Aslo: In an ancient Roman house, an open central court that contained the impluvium, a basin where rainwater collected. It originally contained the hearth and functioned as the center of family life. The term later came to be used for the open front courtyard of a Christian basilica
Etymology 1570s, from Latin atrium “central court or main room of an ancient Roman house, room which contains the hearth,” sometimes said (on authority of Varro, “De Lingua Latina”) to be an Etruscan word, but perhaps from PIE *ater- “fire,” on notion of “place where smoke from the hearth escapes” (through a hole in the roof ). Anatomical sense of “either of the upper cavities of the heart” first recorded 1870. Meaning “skylit central court in a public building” first attested 1967. atrocity (n.) 1530s, from Middle French atrocité or directly from Latin atrocitatem (nom. atrocitas) “cruelty, fierceness, harshness,” noun of quality from atrox “fierce, cruel, frightful,” from PIE *atro-ek-, from root *ater- “fire” (see atrium) + *okw- “see” (see eye (n.)); thus “of fiery or threatening appearance.” The meaning “an atrocious deed” is from 1793. (online teemological dictionary) aerie (n.) “eagle’s nest,” 1580s (attested in Anglo-Latin from early 13c.), from Old French aire “nest,” Medieval Latin area “nest of a bird of prey” (12c.), perhaps from Latin area “level ground, garden bed” [Littré], though some doubt this [Klein]. Another theory connects it to atrium. Formerly misspelled eyrie (1660s) on the mistaken assumption that it derived from Middle English ey “egg”. arpeggio (n.) 1742, from Italian arpeggio, from arpeggiare “to play upon the harp,” from arpa “harp,” which is of Germanic origin (see harp (n.)). Related: Arpeggiated; arpeggiation. Harpies (Fire, space, air.) A Stained Glass Sacred Heart
Incursion As if you were walking outside but not at all. The sun is replaced by fire; the fire is replaced by space. As is you were concerned with openness, and displays of wealth. There are some buildings that have so much space they can be outsides to. Let’s go to the mall, the glass beats, like stained glass hearts pumping blood with rain. This is not fair to deceive to mimic to make greenhouses and pretend the vast space can bring the family together. Hey nature, you are vast, and we can do that too. A stern father, like the Roman lord of the house governs too much of this, from his thorny perch. blueprint
Architectural Definition Reproduction of a technical drawing or design
Secondary Definition Colloquial. Outline a. May refer to rapper, Jay-Z’s, album titles
Etymology [Blueprint – blue – pale – stake – limit – boundary – step – cross - Christianity – religion] [Print – press – push – break – fragments – decay – vulnerability]
Incursion As if you are one of the many working ants of a building colony.
As if you expected too much? There were unpleasant voices of satisfaction that sang songs only you knew, a dozen blue eyes arranged in awkward polygons that reminded you of those lips, fragments of unknown structures that told the stories of those that are sealed, even the light seemed imperfectly idyllic. In the beginning, it was like wet alcohol on your cheeks; refreshingly cool – but only for a moment. When angles don’t add up and intersections don’t cross, I couldn’t really hope for much more. Boundaries don’t allow for hasty reproduction and design doesn’t allow for misplaced love. boundary
Architectural Definition something that fixes a limit or extent, contains and signals a specific space
Secondary Definition In biochemistry, any zone of transition, either between solvent and solution or between two solutions; a zone in which the composition of a solution changes
Etymology boundary as in terminal ▶ from Latin terminalis (pertaining to a boundary or an end, final), fromterminus (end, boundary line) ▶ terminal as in “situated at the extreme end of something” c. 1805, slang meaning “extreme” first recorded 1983 ▶ extreme as in figurative expression “go ballistic” ▶ from Greek ballein “to throw”, pertaining to thrown objects, of rockets or missiles (ie: ballistic missiles), which attain extreme height ▶ objects, is an quantities to be counted ▶ arithmomania: “compulsive desire to count objects and make calculations” ▶ 1890, from French arithmomanie, from Greek arithmos (number, counting, amount) + French manie (“mania”) ▶ “mental derangement characterized by excitement and delusion”, from Late Latin mania (insanity, madness), from Greek mania (madness, frenzy; enthusiasm, inspired frenzy; mad passion, fury), related to mainesthai (to rage, go mad), mantis (seer), menos (passion, spirit) Incursion As if you Were nervous to cross This imaginary line Separating you and The world.
The border That’s firmly drawn In the sands of your mind
Not realizing The potential Of water
To rush in in a wave Wash all of it over The imaginary line retreats away As the waves recede back into the water
Already moving towards Another shore
How slipper this all is, The lines you draw in these grains Disappearing, eroding in a soluble mess The line returning to a dusty state
As if you needed a reminder Of the shoreline’s permeability With waves consistently lapping Back and forth Always subtly encroaching On imagined sacred territory
As if you could not tell the edge because there were no lines in your coloring book. Because of this you went too far, and continued coloring the table, the chair the floor the wall the ceiling, consuming the waxy lives of “purple mountains majesties”, ”scarlet fever” and “mac ’n’ cheese.” Your crayons box of sixty four colors spent you close your eyes and touch the thin silken layer of bee butter in a tactile frenzy. This is it, this is your space there are no more crayons. building
Architectural Definition from The Free Dictionary… Something that is built, as for human habitation; a structure. The act, process, art, or occupation of constructing.
Secondary Definition from Dictionary.com… a relatively permanent enclosed construction over a plot of land, having a roof and usually windows and often more than one level, used for any of a wide variety of activities, as living, entertaining, or manufacturing. a home for birds, fish, gorillas
Etymology From “building” I go “dwelling,” where everything is negative—hinder, delay—I choose “to be stunned” from the Old High German gitwelan. From here I discover “Astone” from the French, but choose to go to “resound.” I find “echo”
“Orange pipe wasp nest,” photographer unknown Incursion As if you are packing the paper trunk with paper, one sheet at a time, the light filled paper trunk, the trunk where you will sleep tonight, where you gather threads and stitch the grooves of the paper trunk with colors, yellow and brown, where holes are cut for breathing in the paper structure, for your sleeping, and for carving walls into the hollows of your hut. You spend your days constructing an archway, a bridge, a comb. cantilever
Architectural Definition noun a long projecting beam or girder fixed at only one end, used chiefly in bridge construction. a long bracket or beam projecting from a wall to support a balcony, cornice, or similar structure.
Secondary Definition In microelectromechanical systems: Two equations are key to understanding the behavior of MEMS cantilevers. The first is Stoney’s formula, which relates cantilever end deflection δ to applied stress σ:
where ν is Poisson’s ratio, E is Young’s modulus, L is the beam length and t is the cantilever thickness. Very sensitive optical and capacitive methods have been developed to measure changes in the static deflection of cantilever beams used in dc-coupled sensors.
Etymology From ‘flying lever bridge’ used in A treatise on Bridge-building by T. Pope 1811 Flying from to lead forth in flight Forth from an Indo-European root shared by fore- Fore Old English - strong feminine Feminine - designating a rhyme between syllables ending in a mute -e Syllable from Greek to take, put, or bring together Take from Gothic to touch with the hands. Hand – the terminal part of the body beyond the wrist Terminal - fatal
Incursion As if you lost all your support, yet still stand strong for a belief. Your passion comes from a secret story, unseen, unknown, unless to the trained eye; perhaps the belief is no longer true to you, but you have a responsibility to stay. Your role is to become the dramatic statement, while critics admire, reject, detest, acknowledge, you, even though it no longer mattered to you if your existence is valuable or not, functional or not, statement or no statement, you hold your ground for your belief, and you will be forever above the weak- minded who comfort themselves with meaningless weight.
A dock extends into the bay where a boys camp held swimming lessons. Tan slim bodies perched on the end and dipped under the surface. Now the rotting waters send life creeping up the wooden supports. Eaten and eroded, the columns weakened to a narrow pick. They break and drift to the floor. Hinged on the shore, the dock still floats on the bay face. However, a wanderer along the bay seeking a peninsular seat and self-reflection, should be wary of long walks off a short pier. ceiling
Architectural Definition from Merriam-Webster Online…
a : the overhead inside lining of a room b : material used to ceil a wall or roof of a room
from Wikipedia…
A ceiling is an overhead interior surface that covers the upper limit of a room. It is generally not a structural element, but a finished surface concealing the underside of the floor or roof structure above.
Ceilings are classified according to their appearance or construction. A cathedral ceiling is any tall ceiling area similar to those in a church. A dropped ceiling is one in which the finished surface is constructed anywhere from a few inches to several feet below the structure above it. This may be done for aesthetic purposes, such as achieving a desirable ceiling height; or practical purposes such as providing a space for HVAC or piping. An inverse of this would be a raised floor. A concave or barrel shaped ceiling is curved or rounded, usually for visual or acoustical value, while a coffered ceiling is divided into a grid of recessed square or octagonal panels, also called a lacunar ceiling. A cove ceiling uses a curved plaster transition between wall and ceiling; it is named for cove molding, a molding with a concave curve.
Ceilings have frequently been decorated with fresco painting, mosaic tiles and other surface treatments. While hard to execute (at least in place) a decorated ceiling has the advantage that it is largely protected from damage by fingers and dust. In the past, however, this was more than compensated for by the damage from smoke from candles or a fireplace. Many historic buildings have celebrated ceilings. Perhaps the most famous is the Sistine Chapel ceiling by Michelangelo.
Secondary Definition from Merriam-Webster Online…
2: something thought of as an overhanging shelter or a lofty canopy
3.a : the height above the ground from which prominent objects on the ground can be seen and identified
b : the height above the ground of the base of the lowest layer of clouds when over half of the sky is obscured
4.a : absolute ceiling : the maximum height above sea level at which a particular airplane can maintain horizontal flight under standard air conditions —called also ceiling
b : service ceiling: the altitude at which under standard air conditions a particular airplane can no longer rise at a rate greater than a small designated rate (as 100 feet per minute)
5: an upper usually prescribed limit Etymology from the Online Etymology Dictionary…
ceiling (n.) mid-14c., celynge, “paneling, any interior surface of a building,” noun formed (with -ing) from Middle English borrowing of Middle French verb celer “to conceal, cover with paneling” (12c.), from Latin celare (see cell); probably influenced by Latin cælum “heaven, sky” (see celestial). The meaning “top surface of a room” is attested by 1530s. Colloquial phrase hit the ceiling “lose one’s temper” is 1914.
celestial (adj.) late 14c., “pertaining to heaven,” from Old French celestial “celestial, heavenly, sky-blue,” from Latin caelestis “heavenly, pertaining to the sky,” from caelum “heaven, sky; abode of the gods; climate,” of uncertain origin; perhaps from PIE *kaid-slo-, perhaps from a root also found in Germanic and Baltic meaning “bright, clear” (cf. Lithuanian skaidrus “shining, clear;” Old English hador, Germanheiter “clear, shining, cloudless,” Old Norse heið “clear sky”).
pie (n.1) “pastry,” mid-14c. (probably older; piehus “bakery” is attested from late 12c.), from Medieval Latin pie “meat or fish enclosed in pastry” (c.1300), perhaps related to Medieval Latin pia “pie, pastry,” also possibly connected with pica “magpie” (see pie (n.2)) on notion of the bird’s habit of collecting miscellaneous objects. Figurative of “something to be shared out” by 1967.
fish (n.) Old English fisc, from Proto-Germanic *fiskaz (cf. Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Old High German fisc, Old Norse fiskr, Middle Dutchvisc, Dutch vis, German Fisch, Gothic fisks), from PIE *peisk- “fish” (cf. Latin piscis, Irish iasc, and, via Latin, Italian pesce, Frenchpoisson, Spanish pez, Welsh pysgodyn, Breton pesk).
Incursion As if you huddled underneath the folded fingers of giants, or found yourself there, huddling, the giants massively crouching in order to captivate your stillness beneath their palms and digit hatchwork, sheltering you from the directness of the light. A canopy of handfolding to hold you from flight and keep you unmoving, mulling things over in the shade. As if, but there you are—enormous hands held for cupping water upside-down. An umbrella of flesh. circulation
Architectural Definition The flow of people through a building, affecting their interactions with the space.
Secondary Definition Elsewhere: Circulatory system; biological system whose primary function is to facilitate motion between cells.
Etymology The “firm base” upholding circulation is circus latin for circle. To here we can leap to circus, with ring masters because it is also close to the Greek krikos for ring . Over time our mouths have softened the consonants. This is a noun of action, to draw a circle, edges, boundaries, to complete a circuit. Measured and knowable. No starting point. Repetition. This leads to flea Old English flea, from Proto-Germanic *flauhaz (cf. Old Norse flo, Middle Dutch vlo, German Floh), perhaps related to Old English fleon “to flee,” with a notion of “the jumping parasite,” or perhaps from PIE *plou- “flea” (cf. Latin pulex, Greek psylla; see puce). “A man named ‘Mueller’ put on the first trained-flea circus in America at the old Stone and Austin museum in Boston nearly forty years ago. Another German named ‘Auvershleg’ had the first traveling flea circus in this country thirty years ago. In addition to fairs and museums, I get as high as $25 for a private exhibition.” [“Professor” William Heckler, quoted in “Popular Mechanics,” February 1928. Printed at the top of his programs were “Every action is visible to the naked eye” and “No danger of desertion.”]
Ouroboros Incursion As if there is no forward or backward, only onward from the space that is your now. As if, when you move, you are looking in multiple directions, holding the existence and nonexistence of point A and point B, of beginning and end, in your mind at the same time. As if the locus of your motion is only guessed at. As if all you know is what path you won’t be taking. As if you, in spite of it all, are an automaton, whose motion is restless, who is, in fact, only motion. As if, as you move, you are a piece of the edge of something, and therefore you are always already participating in the enclosure of an area. As if you over and over and over again.
As if you could exist entire upon your waste, recycling and up cycling to the powers of sixteen. Does this require an audience? What about air and wind? They can be food and thought. Let’s all stand in a circle and then run away, everyone touch barrier a wall a stair a bush a window. Now let’s run back to the circle and share what we touched. Can we do this without words? Death is inherent in this exercise; you have died few times already. What kinds of space do not need human bodies, do they have an architect? corner
Architectural Definition from dictionary.com …
n. 1. the place at which two converging lines or surfaces meet. 2. the space between two converging lines or surfaces near their intersection; angle: a chair in the corner of the room. 3. a projecting angle, especially of a rectangular figure or object: He bumped into the corner of the table.
Secondary Definition n. 4. the point where two streets meet: the corner of Market and Main Streets. 5. an end; margin; edge. --any small, secluded, secret, or private place --a dangerous or awkward position, esp from which escape is difficult: a tight corner --any part, region or place, esp a remote place v. verb (used without object) 21. to meet in or be situated on or at a corner.
Etymology corner
corner (v.) corner (n.)
confront force horn end angle projecting point
front face power violence joint project point
meet join
Incursion As if you were regularly in danger, everything colliding and intersecting infinitely— everything corners—and it takes the meanness of your elbows to cut through. Or falling in love. Though love too is a position of danger, a fissure, an ineptitude of lines not to not cross. It is appropriate, then, your willingness to mismanage your bends, allowing body parts free reign in willowing, curving, and jutting: making a pathway in the air.
As if you are pushed against two walls by your fears. You can’t turn this corner and find something new. You come up against a boundary – the intersection of two boundaries. You lose your mobility. You have to be cornered by something. A bully, or a timeout, or constraints, or your fears. Right now I feel cornered by “as if you,” as if I am cornered to write in the second person, cornered to the sentence fragment, cornered to words on a page. crawlspace
Architectual Definition from the Oxford English Dictionary…
2. crawl space n. (see quot. 1963). crawlway n. 1963 Gloss. Build. Terms (B.S.I.) 9 Crawl space, crawlway, an under-floor space providing access to ducts..and of a height sufficient for crawling.
crawl, n.1 a. The action of crawling; a slow creeping motion.
space, n.1 II. Denoting area or extension. 6. Linear distance; interval between two or more points, objects, etc. 7.a. Physical extent or area; extent in two or three dimensions.
Secondary Definition from the Internet Movie Database…
Crawlspace Movie, 1986, David Schmoeller
A man who runs an apartment house for women is the demented son of a Nazi surgeon who has the house equipped with secret passageways, hidden rooms and torture and murder devices.
Etymology from the Oxford English Dictionary…
crawl, n.1 Etymology: < crawl v.1 Etymology: A rare word in Middle English and apparently only northern; probably < Norse: compare Danish and Norwegian kravle to crawl, climb up, Swedish krafla to grope, Icelandic krafla to paw or scrabble with the hands (Modern Icelandic krafla fram úr to crawl out of ). The word existed also in West Germanic, but the corresponding Old English form *craflian has not been found.
To Norse krafla corresponds an Old Low German *kraƀalôn , whence 15th cent. High German krabelen , krabeln to crawl, creep, still used in various High German dialects, but now replaced in modern German by krabbeln (see Kluge). The word is a frequentative from an Old Germanic vb. stem *kraƀ- : kreƀ- to scratch, claw, paw: compare crab v.2 and see Grimm krabbeln , kribbeln . Etymology, cont. The diphthongal Middle English craule , crawle ( < cravle ), was reduced to crall by end of 15th cent., rhyming with small in Spenser: compare the form-history of awl n. But the phonology of the early forms crewle , creule , croule , crule , is obscure; crewle reminds us of Middle Dutch crēvelen , but croule , crule , suggests some confusion with crowl v., French crouler : see especially sense 6.
crab, v.2 Apparently the same as Dutch, Low German, East Frisian krabben to scratch, claw, < the same root as crab n.1
space, n.1 < Anglo-Norman space, variant of espace, espas, espasce, espase, espasse, es- space, ezpasz, aspace and Old French spaze, variant of aspace, Old French, Middle French espace, espasse (French espace ) period of time, duration, time (second half of the 12th cent.), deferment, delay, respite (c1177), size, extent (of a place) (c1200), occasion, op- portunity (13th cent.), distance between two points, interval, width (1314), expanse of the air or sky (16th cent.; 1662 in sense ‘infinite expanse of the universe’) < classical Latin spatium (in post-classical Latin also spacium ) course or track, expanse of ground, area, space occupied by something, expanse in which the universe is situated, intervening space, gap, interval, space available for a purpose, room, linear extent, length, width, distance, great length or distance, actual distance, surface area, extent, size, stretch of time, period, long period, temporal extent, duration, intervening period of time, interval, time available for a purpose, (in music) difference in pitch between two notes, interval, length or time of a metrical foot, quantity of a vowel sound < the same Indo-European base as speed n. The English word apparently reflects borrowing of the (relatively rare) French forms of the type space , spaze , although its sense development was greatly influenced by the senses shown by the French word in forms of the (much commoner) type espace , as also by the senses of the Latin word. For (rare) examples of forms in English reflecting borrowing of the French type espace see espace n. Compare also spacie n. Compare Old Occitan espazi, espasi (1204; Occitan espaci), Catalan espai (late 13th cent.), Spanish espacio (1196), Portuguese espaço (14th cent.), Italian spazio (1308).
speed, n. Old English spéd, earlier spœd, = Middle Dutch spoed, spoet (Dutch spoed), Old Saxon spôd, spôt (Middle Low German spôd-, spôt, spoet, spoit), Old High Ger- man spôt, spuot (Middle High German sput), < Old English spówan, Old High German spuon to prosper, succeed.
succeed, v. < Old French succeder (from 14th cent.) or < Latin succēdĕre , to go under, go up, come close after, go near, < suc- = sub- prefix 3 + cēdĕre to go. Compare Provençal succedir, Italian succedere, Spanish suceder, Portuguese succeder. Incursion Diving in, as if you need a whole and deeper darkness, the squeeze of smallness, the hold of the tight and hidden.
Hands and knees, like a child, in the underbelly, like before our infancy, we never release the need to feel enfolded, somewhere small enough that we’re bent, face to the ground.
Why else would we be at our knees so often?
Perhaps to remember we are on a base, however round, something stable, though it feels, too often, unruly. curve
Architectural Definition A locus which may be conceived by tracing a moving point the direction of whose motion continuously changes or deviates from a straight line
Secondary Definition A graph line drawn from point to point so as to represent diagramatically a continuous variation of a quantity of a quantity, either with time or with respect to some other quantity
Etymology Latin - curvare, curvus - to bent, crooked, curved flexion (flexionem): a bending, swaying; bend, turn, curve curb (curvus,curvare) “enclosed framework” inflect (inectere) to bend inward
curvus (Latin: crooked, curved, bent), flexion, flexionem (Latin: a bending, swaying; bend, turn, curve). Curb – curvus, curvare (Latin: enclosed framework; a check, a restraint). Inflect -inflectere (Latin: to bend inward). cusp
Architectural Definition the point of intersection between lobed or scalloped curves
Secondary Definition Behavioral cusp A behavioral cusp is any behavior change that brings an organism’s behavior into contact with new contingencies that have far-reaching consequences.[1] A behavioral cusp is a special type of behavior change because it provides the learner with opportunities to access (1) new reinforcers, (2) new contingencies (3) new environments, (4) new related behaviors (generativeness[2]), (5) competition with archaic or problem behaviors, and it (6) impacts the people around the learner, and (7) these people agree to the behavior change and support its development after the intervention is removed. The concept has far reaching implications for every individual, and for the field of developmental psychology, because it provides a behavioral alternative to the concept of maturation and change due to the simple passage of time, such as developmental milestones. Example: A child who learns to open a door may access the swing for the first time and learns to use the swing.[1] Here, the new skill (swinging motion is the reinforcer) may lead to more complex and social activities such as (1) turn taking, (2) asking someone to share the swing, (3) taking turns pushing someone, which in turn (4) may provide more social opportunities to speak and (5) interact with the play partners, etc.
Etymology From the late 16C Latin cuspis, cuspid-em, meaning “point,” “tip,” “sting,” “blade,” “stake,” “spit,” “lance,” or “javelin” POINT: Anglo-Norman pointe, punte, puinte > Middle French poincte > Old French pointe, meaning “a pointed extremity of an object,” “tip,” “charge,” “attack,” “sharp sorrow,” “tapering point of land,” or “ornamental pin”
EXTREMITY: French extrémité < Latin extremitat-em < Lating extrēmus, meaning “the extreme,” “the outermost,” “farthest from the center,” or “endmost” EXTREME: Old French extreme < Latin extrēmus, which is the superlative of exterus, meaning “outward” or “exterior” EXTERIOR: Latin exterior, comparative of exter-us, meaning “outside,” “external”
Related Words Cuspid: A cusped or cuspidate tooth Cuspate: shaped like a cusp Cuspated: furnished with one or more cusps cusp catastrophe: ( in the public domain)
Incursion As if you and I stand on either side of a small field. We marked the midpoint, for which we aim. For years we trained as divers, know how to draw perfect airborne half circles, mirrors of and towards each other. It is the space of the moment our fingertips touch, wedged in the ground. It is the fleeting image of completion, the brief angle of bodily argument against a universal pull that ends such grace a breath after in twisted, crumpled limbs.
As if you walked and walked and walked. You walked until you came to an edge. You did all this walking, and it must be for something, you know, it wasn’t in vain. So, you feel, you must have come to the edge of something important then, something meaningful. You look down and see it, the edge there before you. It is plain to see that you are at the extremity, of one thing, and facing the exterior of another.
As if you encounter a sharp and sudden event that makes you turn back in the opposite direction. You try something new and never do the old thing again. You move, meet someone and they change the way you live. You are cusping. You’re on a cusp. You are a cusp.
Catastrophe. It’s like my life was on this neat straight line and suddenly everything dipped and reversed. That was a singular event in my life - traumatic, or beautiful, or both – everything changed, and I’ll never go back. My life reversed its trajectory: either come rising upwards or crashing downwards. I can’t go back to the way things used to be. I’m someone else now. I’m just waiting for another cusp. Incursion As if you walk in a continuous, almost unending hallway. However, while walking, all you see is a wall of gradiation of light to dark in front of you. The end of the hallway is pinched to the right side of your vision and you continue to walk right - but gradually. You start to wonder what will come when you turn the wall after wall.
In your motion, the generation of new radii. The production of partial spheres or half domes or states unbridged previous to now by meridians. And you are the meridian. The warped line and the wrinkle of a trace. And you’ve prescribed the new space in some ledger. As if you were the permanent undoing of the rind. As if the empty sheet in its new molding becomes an anchor or a container. As if you reach in and name the new through the geomancy of diction. As if you have an ingrained path and we can run right along. As if you have intention and are not made for sport. As if you are tethered to quantities and implicit in your arc is a system of numbers. As if you’ve rounded up area itself. As if you, in your perfection of incomplete lines, speak for yourself. door
Architectural Definition from Dictionary.com… A structure or object that can move in one way or another to open or close an entrance.
Secondary Definition “The building, house, etc., to which a door belongs: My friend lives two doors down the street.” A means of access, participation, approach or admittance.
Etymology from the Online Entymolgy Dictionary… [Middle English merger of Old English duru door, dor gate > Dutch gat gap, hole, breach > Old English hol orifice, cave > early 13c., from Old French cave vault, cellar > Old French celier underground passage > 1630s underground hidden, secret]
Incursion As if you knew what greens and blues they painted over those jealous marks. The peephole somehow inside out – mimicking a window of contemptuous desire. Scope but no perspective like a kitten that believes my toes are petite untamed monsters. Your father though, is made of no glass. Instead cotton blurs your vision. and an entrance is no feline. and you look up only to see cracked metal of two tones, thinking maybe the monsters see more than me. But the cave paintings still live on the otherwise naked walls. I know it. But I can’t say I entered since either. There’s something about the frame you’d say. Now it frames panic, no? You forgot it was an exit, too. fabrication
Architectural Definition In architecture, a process in which metal is manipulated from one state to another; more specifically, involving the preparation of steel for erection, through being cut to length, punched, and drilled.
Secondary Definition In medicine, confabulation – a filling in of gaps in memory by unconstrained inventions
Etymology Origin: from Middle French fabrication, directly from Latin fabricationem, stem fabricare; in the sense of “lying, falsehood, forgery” ▶ derived from “forge”▶ in the sense of “make way, move ahead”, c. 1610s, notion of “steady hammering”, originally nautical, meant in reference to vessels ▶ derived from hammer ▶ from Proto-Germanic hamaraz, Old Norse cognate hamarr (stone, crag, tool with a stone head) ▶ Proto-Indo-European akmen (stone, sharp stone used as a tool – ie: Russian kameni [stone]), from root ak- (sharp) ▶ Old English stan (of common rocks, precious gems), from Proto-Germanic stainaz (ie Gothic stains), from Proto-Indo-European stai – (stone), (ie: Greek stia, stion [pebble], Old Church Slavonic stena [wall]) ▶ merger of Old Norse steina (to paint) and Middle English disteynen (to discolor or stain), from Old French desteign- derived from desteindre, teindre (to dye) ▶ from Old French peindre, from Latin pingere (to paint, represent in a picture, embroider, tattoo), from Proto-Indo-European root peig-/peik- (to cut) ▶ from North Germanic kut-, or from Old French couteau (knife), replacement for Old English ceorfan (carve, cut down, slay, cut out, engrave), from West Germanic karfen (German kerben [to cut, notch]), Proto-Indo-European root gerbh- (to scratch) Incursion As if you:
Filled your mind with constructions, Stories,
Which seem to stand as firm as the stories that were once there. Filled in the vacant spaces, With structures that stand solid, stiff secure, steady: holding their shape with reinvented metal twisted, forged anew from molten liquid
Malleable. The liquid metal moves through the welder’s hands with such ease, The same ease with which words move through space in your mind.
As if every skyscraper on the street has a story. Beneath the translucent veil of scaffolding is another draft taking shape, Being forged into a final copy. façade
Architectural Definition generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front
Secondary Definition a false, superficial, or artificial appearance or effect.
Etymology
Still from Façade, the video game. The user interacts with Grace and Trip, a couple who put on a front of happiness but are revealed to have deep conflict. The character sprites and images are also 2-D façades. Incursion As if you are only the sum of your skin, your clothes, and your facial expression. You try to break it with words, actions, connections to other people. You try to be something you’re not. Something that you’re more than. Because you are always more than what you present to other people. The skin is a medium separating your outer projection from your gooey emotional insides. Are you still only a façade to them? fold
Architectural Definition ie: folding techniques: In architecture, a trend, a playful way of design, with space, structure, and organization, starting with paper, creating threedimensional objects out of two-dimensional surface
Secondary Definition A flock of sheep
Etymology a) Old English faldan (“to bend cloth over back on itself ”) ▶ West Saxon fealdan ▶ Proto- Germanic falthanan ▶ Lithuanian pleta (“I plait”) ▶ plait in the sense of “tress”: from Old French tresse (a plait or braid of hair) ▶ vulgar Latin trichia (braid, rope) ▶ Greek trikhia (rope) ▶ from thrix (hair) ▶ tress in the sense of lock (of hair) ▶ Old English locc (“lock of hair”) ▶ Proto-Germanic lukkoz ▶ related to Lithuanian lugnas (flexible), Greek lygos (withe, pliant twig) ▶ in the sense of “forked twig” ▶ Old Irish gabul (“forked twig”) ▶ cognate of Proto-Germanic gablaz (top of a pitched roof ) ▶ developing into Old Norse gafl ▶ Old French gable “façade, front, gable” b) “pen or enclosure for sheep or other domestic animals” ▶ Old English falud (“stall, stable, cattle pen”) ▶ Germanic ( ie: East Frisian folt [enclosure, dunghill], Dutch vaalt [“dunghill’] Figurative use by mid-14th cent.) ▶ dunghill = dung + hill ▶ Old English dung (manure, fertilizer) ▶ common Germanic (ie: Old Norse dyngja [heap of manure, women’s apartment] ▶ from dhengh- (covering) ▶ Lithuanian dengti (to cover), Old Irish dingim (I press). Incursion As if you …. a) crease, make permanent, so even when it is open, you can see the mark b) condense, minimize, smaller and smaller until you can’t anymore c) expand, into a new dimension something flat becomes a structure, beyond the d) crease, beyond the enclosure beyond the limits of space, beyond the weight of pressure, beyond that which you want to cave under e) show your face, as the structure takes shape, and the crane flies away
As if you opened all the leaves and bent all the trees; pressing them down until they gave up from your sharp smother. In this process you might notice the homes of rodents and their stock piles of red velvet cupcake wrappers doubled over quartered overturning circles to triangular wedges. You ponder this almost food, this paper come delicacy and realize that one cannot crease upon a tree for too long. You conceal this anguishing defeat with more red velvet cupcakes, and a curious yoga practice of touching your ear to shoulder your shoulder to your hip, and your hip to your ankle. gravity
Architectural Definition the property of being heavy or having weight
Secondary Definition seriousness or importance, especially a consequence of an action or opinion
Etymology “weight, dignity, seriousness.” gravitas (latin) - heaviness, inuence, presence gravitate - exert weight, move downward gravare - to make heavy, burden, oppress, aggravate sobriety “steadiness, gravity.”
Incursion As if you were trying to escape the Castle of Oz. You secretly walk up the marble stairs and sneak past the stone-faced guards. The stones and statues of the castle’s architecture are heavy and show much dignity. Steadily, you come across a netted bridge. And SWOOP. You fall into the net like a bowling bowl thrown into a blanket. A force pulls you down to the earth below, and you swim in the midst of the air, making an attempt, but failing to win the force. grid
Architectural Definition Two sets of orthogonal lines laid over each other, forming the base for a building plan.
Secondary Definition A broadcast communications network.
Etymology Grid – gridiron – gridlock – griddle – grill – graille (Old French: frying pan), craticula and cratis (Latin: small griddle; wickerwork) – kert (to turn, entwine)
Incursion As if you were standing in an endless plain dictated by the precepts, numerical, that control the limits of the world. As if you moved according to rules neither obtuse nor acute, but, in all aspects, orthogonal. As if finding yourself orthogonal to objects and the passing threads of ideas. Not as if you were a conduit, but as if you were many conduits, a living plural, firmly fixed and assigned. As if you were bent, entwined with unrelenting precision. As if two dimensions were the limit of you, you occupant of flat land, occupied with flat grand thoughts. Geared towards the final production and the smooth operation of the system. As if you were tuned in. ground
Architectural Definition from Merriam-Websters… noun. The solid surface of the earth, alternative name for the earth’s lithosphere. verb. Prohibit or prevent an aircraft from flying. adj. reduced to fine particles by crushing or mincing.
Secondary Definition (law) noun. a rational motive, basis for a belief or conviction; reason or cause; foundation for action taken; logical development, source.
Etymology Ground – deny – privilege – rights – justice – fairness – scale – weight – level – leverage – force – gravity – fall – control – to rub away – gnash
Spiral Jetty, 2005 Robert Smithson Incursion As if you are digging, digging. Peeling away layers of the earth and revealing the tissue of the land, constantly reworking the surface on which you’re standing, you bring new skin to old flesh. Earth transforms as its faces are renewed, sectioned, dissected, examined. You insert your presence into the weave of its anatomy, your body now breaths through the same portals, your blood pumps through the same veins. It may seem for a while there is no bottom, no end, but perhaps your dig- ging, digging, is meant to find a way to, and not to find a way out.
Two trees died in the backyard. The hollowed branches split and shed until they were left with only their anthropomorphic limbs. Fallen pieces were dragged off to the edge of the wood, leaving dark grooves in the grass. All winter the naked trunks speared out black from the heavy snow. In revelatory spring, it was de- cided that they be removed. A tractor came and gnawed away at the black rotting obelisk. All around it spewed fine light dust from the pulpy core where a little tree life remained. The flecks of tree duned up around the diminishing stump. When everything was different, the tree was shoveled and spread like snow around the garden. joint
Architectural Definition from Wikipedia … Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems (JAUS), formerly known as Joint Architecture for Unmanned Ground Systems (JAUGS), was originally an initiative started in 1998 by the United States Department of Defense to develop an open architecture for the domain of unmanned systems.
from Merriam-Webster … the point of contact between elements of an animal skeleton with the parts that surround and support it the junction of two or more members of a framed structure
Secondary Definition Book Anatomy : a small groove where the books boards are attached to the book and bends when the book is opened.
Etymology Joint. I go out laterally to “enjoint,” which leads me to “enjoin.” I am in a tight corridor; it’s difficult to find a way out. “Reshaped” appears. I go to “shape,” inside of which I find “fashion” (but this is not the direction I want to go). Staying with the word “shape” I surprisingly arrive at “to draw water” from the German and Dutch.
mage from softrigid.com, photographer unknown Incursion Leaning into the doorway, as if you are tired or perhaps seeing something micro- scopic, in the door, in the hinge of the door, and someone calling you and saying, “stand up straight and do something,” when the thing you’re doing is trying to read the small print in the fulcrum of the door, when you are trying to get inside, get on the other side of this moment, where you are pulled in two places, where you are between two possible entries, the least desirous being the one behind you. layer
Architectural Definition from dictionary.com …
A thickness, course or fold of material on a surface
Secondary Definition Geology. Bed; stratum One that lays “A hen kept for egg protection.”
from Merriam-Websters…
“A branch or shoot of a plant that roots while still attached to the parent plant.” An item of clothing worn on top of another.
Etymology from the Online Etymology Dictionary…
[Middle English leyer, layere stone or brick that lays > Middle Dutch bricke tile, broken piece > c.1200, Old French, piece measure, portion > Old French mesurer moderate, curb > Latin curvus bend > Old Norse benda to join, strain, strive > c.1200, Old French estriver to quarrel, dispute ] Incursion As if you floated in zero, incessantly mediating extremes. Unforgiving to trespassers but they don’t come around much. Outside and beneath you is a shell of grey porcelain that attracts the subject with keen taste. The first one is never the deepest – she will peel this now blackened sheet from the rest of you. You, unscathed. Again, lays a rejuvenated grey that knows no blue or red sky. They covered the rest of you – and this she wants. So become thick, you or she will rip with no remorse, every tear reconfirming the imbalance. Your extremes are unfathomably docile that every grey looks the same and she sees not what she looks for. liminal
Architectural Definition Occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.
The spatial dimension of liminality can include specific places, larger zones or areas, or entire countries and larger regions. Liminal places can range from borders and frontiers to no man’s lands and disputed territories, to crossroads to perhaps airports or hotels, which people pass through but do not live in.
Secondary Definition Various minority groups can be considered liminal. In reality illegal immigrants (present but not “official”),and stateless people, for example, are regarded as liminal because they are “betwixt and between home and host, part of society, but sometimes never fully integrated”. Intersexual or transgender people, bisexual people in most contemporary societies, and those of mixed ethnicity or accused but not yet judged guilty or not guilty, are liminal. Teenagers, being neither children nor adults, are liminal people. The category could also hypothetically and in fiction include cyborgs, hybrids between two species, shapeshifters.
Etymology Person at the Window, Salvador Dali
Incursion As if you exist in a liminal space, neither here nor there. You stand with one foot in and one foot out. You are just trying on this identity, this group, this skin. You’re not a girl, not yet a woman. You wish you were home, yet you are here, and so you don’t belong to either place. Here you feel accepted, but at other times you feel marginalized. Where do you belong? line “Living along is one thing; joining up is quite another.” Lines, Tim Ingold
Architectural Definition (architecture/geometry) Noun. An infinitely-extending one dimensional figure that has no curvature. Straight objects or collection of objects with negligible width and depth. Lines are an idealization of such objects.
(action) verb. Stand or be positioned at intervals along; to cover the inside surface with a layer of material.
Secondary Definition (geography) noun. “The Line” is used to refer to the Equator. Lines running from North Pole to South Pole map geographic coordinates that correspond to a position on the Earth’s surface.
Etymology from the Online Etymology Dictionary … Line – cord – string – thread – weave – connect – trace – track – path – points – places – destination – lost – confusion – identity – belief – faith Incursion As if you were to live your life by following one person: his paths, his movements, and his moments of pause. You footsteps trace behind his, leaving marks behind that are steadfast, continuous and faithful. Perhaps he is following someone else, and the lines we trace between ourselves make up the paths we took and will take. mapping
Architectural Definition a graphic, planar depiction of land surface, drawn to scale
Secondary Definition In genetics, to locate a gene or DNA sequence in a region of a chromosome
Etymology Origin: Medieval Latin mappa mundi (map of the world) – mappa (napkin, cloth, tablecloth, signal-cloth, flag, from Talmudic Hebrew mappa, contraction of Mishnaic menaphah [fluttering banner, streaming cloth]) + mundi (of the world, from mundus (universe, world). Commonly used in 17th c. figuratively as “epitome, detailed representation”▶1520s, an abstract; a brief statement of the chief points of some writing, from Middle French epitome, from Latin epitome (abridgment), from epitemnein (cut short, abridge), from epi (into) + temnein to cut), related to tome ▶1510s, from Latin tomus (section of a book), from Greek tomos (volume, section of a book, section, piece cut off ), fromtemnein (to cut), from Proto-Indo-European tom-/tem- (to cut, ie: Old Church Slavonic tina [to cleave, split], Welsh tam [morsel]) ▶developing into Old German sleizen (to tear to pieces, to split, cleave) ▶ West Germanic word meaning slit ▶ Old French esclater (smash, shatter into pieces)▶ eclater (burst out, splinter) ▶ French éclat (splinter, fragment, flash of brilliance) Incursion As if you … Put pen to paper, Transcribed the world. Recorded life in all its forms, As you saw it, Projecting not with language But with lines and curves
Forming shapes across An arbitrary grid Shaping not only the world, But all life and study to come after it
Curves morph into discursive lines of thought of conversation of interpretation Guiding the hands and minds of scholars and policymakers alike
Your original fanciful curves Become strict boundaries
Fencing life in, As the latitude and longitude grid once did
As if you unintentionally showed your hand, Used your freehand drawing To flatten the complex world Into a 2-D illustration. materials
Architectural Definition the elements, constituents, or substances of which something is composed or can be made, something that may be worked into a more finished form: bricks, wood, hay, mud, glass, cement, marble, steel, rivets, nails, plaster, horse hair, see : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Category:Building_materials
Conversely: “Building material is not the proper material of architecture. The material of architecture, rather, is the building material already organized into elements, each one of which is a response to some prime construction problem. Such are, among others, the wall, the angle formed by the juncture of two walls, the openings made in the wall in the form of doors and windows, the roof or the vault, in short, those parts of an edifice required to define and isolate a closed portion of space.”-Etienne Gilson, Forms and Substances in the Arts. Salvator Attanasio, tr. Charles Scribner’s Sons (New York: 1966) p. 55.
Secondary Definition from Merriam -Webster’s …
relating to, derived from, or consisting of matter; especially : physical: bodily of or relating to matter rather than form of or relating to the subject matter of reasoning; especially : empirical having real importance or great consequences being of a physical or worldly nature relating to or concerned with physical rather than spiritual or intellectual things.
Etymology mid-14c., “real, ordinary; earthly, drawn from the material world;” a term in scholastic philosophy and theology, from Old French material, materiel (14c.) and directly from Late Latin materialis (adj.) “of or belonging to matter,” from Latin materia “matter, stuff, wood, timber” (see matter). From late 14c. as “made of matter, having material existence; material, physical, substantial;” from late 15c. as “important, relevant.” materialize (v.) 1710, “represent as material,” from material (adj.) + -ize. Meaning “appear in bodily form” is 1880, in spiritualism. Related: Materialized; materializing. stuff (n.) early 14c., “quilted material worn under chain mail,” from Old French estoffe “quilted material, furniture, provisions” (Modern French étoffe), from estoffer “to equip or stock,” which according to French sources is from Old High German stopfon “to plug, stuff,” or from a related Frankish word (see stop), but OED has “strong objections” to this. Sense extended to material for working with in various trades (c.1400), then (1570s) “matter of an unspecified kind.” Meaning “narcotic, dope, drug” is attested from 1929. To know (one’s) stuff “have a grasp on a subject” is recorded from 1927. fetish (n.) 1610s, fatisso, from Portuguese feitiço “charm, sorcery,” from Latin facticius “made by art,” from facere “to make” (see factitious). Mascot “talisman, charm,” 1881, from provincial French mascotte “sorcerer’s charm, ‘faerie friend,’ good luck piece” (19c.), of uncertain origin, perhaps from or related to Provençal mascoto “sorcery, fetish” (cf. Narbonnese manuscript, 1233, mascotto “procuress, enchantment, bewitchment in gambling”), from masco “witch,” from Old Provençal masca, itself of unknown origin, perhaps from Medieval Latin masca “mask, specter, nightmare” (see mask (n.)). Popularized by French composer Edmond Audran’s 1880 comic operetta “La Mascotte,” about a household “fairy” who gives luck to an Italian peasant, performed in a toned-down translation in England from fall 1881. A Berkley Horse
Incursion As if you could control your inclinations and urges, open your ribcage like solid oak doors and hide your whole body in there. Yes, there is a desire for continence, to be orderly, make categories and label each element, sorting a bottle of change. I grab the quarters first. It is like hammering nails. Take some time to forget about your philosophy and just be a building, made of different densities of tissue, housing a vast garden of organisms. Let your mind, or identity or soul be one of the many inhabitants. Now try to build another one. ornament
Architectural Definition from dictionary.com …
noun 1. an accessory, article, or detail used to beautify the appearanceof something to which it is added or of which it is a part:architectural ornaments. 2. a system, category, or style of such objects or features;ornamentation: a book on Gothic ornament. 3. any adornment or means of adornment.
from Wikipedia.com … In architecture and decorative art, ornament is a decoration used to embellish parts of a building or object. Large figurative elements such as monumental sculpture and their equivalents in decorative art are excluded from the term; most ornament does not include human figures, and if present they are small compared to the overall scale. Architectural ornament can be carved from stone, wood or precious metals, formed with plaster or clay, or painted or impressed onto a surface as applied ornament; in other applied arts the main material of the object, or a different one such as paint or vitreous enamel may be used. A wide variety of decorative styles and motifs have been developed for architecture and the applied arts, including pottery, furniture, metalwork. In textiles, wallpaper and other objects where the decoration may be the main justification for its existence, the terms pattern or design are more likely to be used.
In a 1941 essay,[1] the architectural historian Sir John Summerson called it “surface modulation”. Decoration and ornament has been evident in civilizations since the beginning of recorded history, ranging from Ancient Egyptian architecture to the apparent lack of ornament of 20th century Modernist architecture.
Secondary Definition from Wikipedia…
A biological ornament is a structure of an animal that appears to serve a decorative function rather than an ostensible, utilitarian function. Ornaments are used in displays to attract mates. An animal may shake, lengthen, or spread out its ornament in order to get the attention of the opposite sex, which will in turn choose the most attractive one. Ornaments are most often observed in males and picking an extravagantly ornamented male benefits females because those “good genes” will be passed on to her offspring, increasing their survival or reproductive fitness. These genes are considered “good” solely due to the fact that it will increase the likelihood that a female will be attracted to the male that carries them. These structures usually serve as sexual cues, which are sensory signals used lead to mating responses. Therefore, ornamental traits are often selected by mate choice. Etymology from the Online Etymology Dictionary…
ornament (n.) early 13c., “an accessory,” from Old French ornement “ornament, decoration,” and directly from Latin ornamentum “apparatus, equipment, trappings; embellishment, decoration, trinket,” from ornare “equip, adorn” (see ornate). Meaning “decoration, embellishment” in English is attested from late 14c. (also a secondary sense in classical Latin). Figurative use from 1550s.
“decoration, embellishment” embellish (v.) mid-14c., “to render beautiful,” from Old French embelliss-, stem of embellir “make beautiful, ornament,” from em- (see en- (1)) +bel “beautiful,” from Latin bellus (see bene-). Meaning “dress up (a narration) with fictitious matter” is from mid-15c. Related:Embellished; embellishing.
“fictitious matter” fiction (n.) late 14c., “something invented,” from Old French ficcion (13c.) “dissimulation, ruse; invention,” and directly from Latin fictionem(nom. fictio) “a fashioning or feigning,” noun of action from pp. stem of fingere “to shape, form, devise, feign,” originally “to knead, form out of clay,” from PIE *dheigh- (cf. Old English dag “dough;” see dough). As a branch of literature, 1590s.
or Ornament ornery
ornery (adj.) 1816, American English dialectal contraction of ordinary (adj.). “Commonplace,” hence “of poor quality, coarse, ugly.” By c.1860 the sense had evolved to “mean, cantankerous.” Related: Orneriness.
Ordinary Order Command ≠
Incursion As if your body was ornamenting the mind’s activity with physicality, flourish. Not teeth ornamenting the roof of the mouth—the body and ornament of the body—but rather chewing as ornament to the intelligence of the jaw and the concept of mastication; mobility as the strut and calm of synaptic pulse and recursion, rhythm. The internal organs as well, then, their mindless work, ornament to sub-consciousness, the mind willing breath and heartbeat as decoration. scale
Architectural Definition A graduated range of values forming a standard system for measuring or grading something
Secondary Definition A small thin piece
Etymology skaelo: shell, split, divide to cut, cleave, split scrape pan of balance, drinking cup weighing to climb (down) - reduce “scandere” from scala (Latin)
Incursion As if you were looking at a column from the interior. It is semi-attached to the wall, and the other half is out at the exterior. You leave the building and see a massive stone column five times the size you have seen from the outside. Eventhough they are the same columns made out of concrete, it feels like as dierent as a bush is to a Redwood tree. shadow
Architectural Definition from Mirriam-Webster’s … Partial darkness or obscurity within a part of space from which rays from a source of light are cut off by an interposed opaque body
Secondary Definition from Mirriam-Webster’s … 2. The dark figure cast upon a surface by a body intercepting the rays from a source of light
Etymology from the Online Etymology Dictionary … Shadow (n.): From the Old English word, “sceadwe” or “sceaduwe.” Some cases of “sceadu” (see shade). Greek, “skia thanatou,” perhaps a mistranslation of the Hebrew word for “intense darkness.” Shade: Old English “sceadu” (“shade, shadow, darkness,” also “shady place, protection from glare or heat”). The definition, “grade of color” first recorded 1680s (cf. French nuance, from nue “cloud”). “Ghost” is from 1610s. Meaning as “window blind” first recorded 1867 (American English). Darkness (n.): Old English word, “deorcnysse,” from dark + -ness. Figurative use first recorded in mid-14thcentury. Ghost (n.): Old English word, “gast”,meaning “soul, spirit, life, breath; goodor bad spirit, angel, demon.” Spirit (n.): From a mid-13th century word meaning “animating or vital principle in man and animals;” from Old French “espirit;” from Latin word “spiritus,” meaning “soul, courage, vigor, breath;” related to “spirare” (“to breathe”); from PIE *(s)peis- “to blow” (cf. Old Church Slavonic pisto “to play on the flute”). Shadow (v.): From late Old English “sceadwian” (“to protect as with covering wings”). See: overshadow. Overshadow (v.): From Old English word, “ofersceadwian,” meaning “to cast a shadow over, obscure.” Obscure (v.): c.1400, “dark,” figuratively “morally unenlightened; gloomy,” from Old French “obscur,” and “oscur” (“dark, clouded, gloomy; dim, not clear”) (12c.) and directly from Latin “obscurus,” meaning “dark, dusky, shady,” figuratively “unknown; unintelligible; hard to discern; from insignificant ancestors,” Incursion As if you had inhaled the dust from ten thousand diamonds in a single breath, annihilating and absorbing the shimmering facets and gleaming time-honed starlight light bright like the hole of a miser’s drain. Swallowed whole and cast into darkness, partially and pitifully cast into the shade of a towering, palatial figure, doors opened wide to reveal the sharp white teeth of the gluttonous mouth as they cut and grind and obscure that which once shone so brightly. This dark figure, alas a mass so obscure as to block the light entirely, is indeed a cruel captor. surface
Architectural Definition The outside part or uppermost layer of something.
Secondary Definition Rise or come up to the surface of the water or the ground.
Etymology surface (n.) 1610s, from French surface “outermost boundary of anything, outside part” (16c.), from Old French sur- “above” (see sur-) + face (see face (n.)). Patterned on Latinsuperficies “surface” (see superficial).
superficial (adj.) late 14c., in anatomical and mathematical uses, “of or relating to a surface,” from Latin superficialis “of or pertaining to the surface,” from superficies “surface,” from super “above, over” (see super-) + facies “form, face” (see face (n.)). Meaning “not deep, without thorough understanding, cursory” (of perceptions, thoughts, etc.) first recorded early 15c. (implied in superficially “not thoroughly”).
face (n.) late 13c., “front of the h ead,” from Old French face (12c.) “face, countenance, look, appearance,” from Vulgar Latin *facia (cf. Italian faccia), from Latin facies “appearance, form, figure,” and secondarily “visage, countenance;” probably related to facere “to make” (see factitious).
factitious (adj.) 1640s, from Latin factitius “artificial,” from factus, pp. of facere “do” (source of French faire, Spanish hacer), from PIE root *dhe- “to put, to do” (cf. Sanskrit dadhati “puts, places;” Avestan dadaiti “he puts;” Old Persian ada “he made;” Hittite dai- “to place;” Greek tithenai “to put, set, place;” Lithuanian deti “to put;” Polish dziać się “to be happening;” Russian delat’ “to do;” Old High German tuon, German tun, Old Saxon, Old English don “to do;” Old Frisian dua, Old Swedish duon, Gothic gadeths “a doing;” Old Norse dalidun “they did”). fake attested in London criminal slang as adjective (1775), verb (1812), and noun (1851, of persons 1888), but probably older. A likely source is feague “to spruce up by artificial means,” from German fegen “polish, sweep,” also “to clear out, plunder” in colloquial use. “Much of our early thieves’ slang is Ger. or Du., and dates from the Thirty Years’ War” [Weekley]. Or it may be from Latin facere “to do.” Related: Faked; fakes; faking.
plunder (n.) “goods taken by force; act of plundering,” 1640s, from plunder (v.). Incursion As if you rise up from a dive to where water meets air. Skim the wave as you surf. Surf the web on your Microsoft Surface. An old boss of mine had a “Surfware” loungewear line with the tagline “Everything you need to surf… the web… in bed.” Is everything you read on the Internet merely surface? A surface reading implies a lack of depth, only seeing what’s immediately apparent. In French, “sur” means on: on the face. On my face you can read my expression but not all my emotion. But the surface is all you can see.
A staunch bickerer, you are Larry. As if you allow your feet to press flat, or rather, in their Larry-heavy manner, your feet-surfaces allow you rooting and positioning, a standing place for argument. A location conditioned for high blood pressure and quarreling, letting the open air meet the face of your lacerations. How your language leaves the mouth, where it is projected to, and what halts it, causing it to fall into the ground. threshold
Architectural Definition An entrance or a doorway
Secondary Definition The place or point of beginning; the outset
Etymology prescold, poerscwold, prexold, prescan (Old English: doorsill; point of entering; tread, trample). “Limit” – threshold. “Subliminal” – below the threshold of consciousness.
Old English: prescold, poescwold,prexold “doorsill, point of entering”, prescan: tread, trample limit - threshold “subliminal”- below the threshold (of consciousness) Incursion As if you were at the cusp. As if you were at the moment of entry. Like the sudden quantum choice that forever abolishes the motion into any other of the myriad worlds and their attendant possible yous. Like finding out if the cat is dead or how fast you are going. Like being gifted with some knowledge. Like being given that carrot. As if you were suddenly a member of a massy release. Going over. But not quite yet. As if there was a hair left to walk. As if remaining in the know is an impossibility unless you move. The experiments beyond this are beyond your ken. As if you feel it is good to be at rest. As if you have to move. As if the moving is your entirety.
As if you see a small enterable (which you know by instinct) hole made by small branches structuring each other. You look inside - and see a weak but shimmering light from the other end. You enter that point and come out to a new space you have not experienced in the space you entered from before. wall
Architectural Definition noun. A continuous vertical structure, usually solid, that defines an area. A wall can separate, protect, delineate, support, enclose, and can be moved and/or shared. verb. To enclose (n area) within walls, especially to protect or lend it to some privacy.
Secondary Definition (physiology/psychology) verb. “To hit a wall”, a point where the human brain and body feels that it cannot be pushed further and continue. It is the threshold at which it is incredibly difficult to move forward. Also refers to something the human mind is blocking or hiding from memory.
Etymology from the Online Etymology Dictionary… Wall – stake – mark – defend – territory – trespass – acquire – power – enforcement – government – law – restrictions – punishment- confinement
Torqued Torus Inversion & Sequence, MoMA, 2006 by Richard Serra
Incursion As if you cannot escape from a container, you do not know how many compartments there are, or whether a world even existed beyond. You walk in circles, squares, zigzags… only to realize that you cannot recall the path you have taken, and you cannot map in your mind what is exactly in the container with you. You are standing next to someone, but you’re unaware of his or her presence as they are on the other side of the wall. As if you were to cut a hole in the wall, yet still don’t know whether you’re inside or outside. wasteland
Architectural Definition from the Oxford English Dictionary…
1. a. Land in its natural, uncultivated state. Also attrib. b. Land (esp. that which is surrounded by developed land) not used or unfit for cultivation or building and allowed to run wild.
Secondary Definition from The Free Dictionary…
History. “a region, period in history, etc., that is considered spiritually, intellectually, or aesthetically barren or desolate” 7
Etymology from the Oxford English Dictionary …
etymology: < waste n. + land n.1; compare waste land under waste adj. This compound is now indistinguishable from collocations of the adjective: see waste adj. 1.
collocation, n. Etymology: < Latin collocātiōn-em, n. of action < collocāre (see collocate v.). Compare French collocation. 1. a. The action of setting in a place or position, esp. of placing together with, or side by side with, something else; disposition or arrangement with, or in relation to, others; the state of being so placed. Frequently applied to the arrangement of words in a sentence, of sounds, etc.
collocate, v. Etymology: < Latin collocāt- participial stem of collocāre : see collocate adj. Compare French colloquer.
Colloque (French): symposium Incursion As if you dared to be me, you talked. And I heard, confused by your tones and intonations but still the sounds came, creating waves you thought would travel pass my ear. But bleak eyes will always stop noise. The sight of expected erasure cancels all else. There exists no break for sense – I’m still amazed I could smell your guilt. The day you chose your lips as mode of feeling became the day my eyes knew only to listen. I can only here emptiness. This is not wind. And then you stopped.
What is the distance between empty and barren? Endeavor to establish the distinction, as if you were charged with a mission to measure the intermediary space. Go to the badlands, the wilds, the deserts, and wonder, what lives here, and can it survive? Could I? When you push your fingers down past the hard crust, what comes up pressed under the wedge of your nail? Does it feel, in slightest, like something alive? If it smells like decay, it is still a suggestion that once, here, was life. It must be rough, course, sharp – but almost nothing. window
Architectural Definition An opening built into a wall, roof, side of building or vehicle that admits light and/or air into an enclosed space; usually framed and closed with transparent sash such as glass
Secondary Definition from the Oxford English Dictionary… 4. c. A continuous range of electromagnetic wavelengths for which the atmosphere (or some other medium) is relatively transparent
Etymology from the Online Etymology Dictionary…
[early 13c. Old Norse vindauya wind eye > Sanskrit akshi eye, number two > c.1300 Anglo-French noumbre sum, aggregate of a collection > late 13c., Anglo-French and Old French summe quantity or amount of money > Latin monere advise, warn > Old English wær aware, cautious > 1640s caution + -ous > Latin cautionem (nom. cautio) care, foresight > Old English carian be anxious, grieve > Latin angere choke, squeeze ] Incursion As if you are lying, bedridden, and presented a sole opportunity. One frame, one view, from a pre-determined position. Here you are, there it is, the frame that declares what is out and what in, that cultivates a parallel longing (oh the grass is always…). Walk-shoppers wanting while escape-lust is mounting from the storekeeper stationed on the other side. The pane forms a membrane between dark and light: this relationships shifts with the hour. In the sun, in the warm glow, desire. As if you must pick a side.
As if you, dear, could see me always. You would look through every time you saw there was light. I believe you are absent and so I behave that way. Nevertheless, I still hope that you may see my bare leg when I step towards the foyer or that you may get just a glimpse of the sweet words I will write to you before my eyes close or that you may witness my bouncy shadows even when I sleep with another beside me. Just to know I dream of you too. With this you could read me whenever and I wouldn’t know. But, oh, how I would love to. Share with me how one silhouette incited the discovery of my body’s secret or how one glare announced the tales of my mind’s diary. Could you watch forever on the other side? Or must I come out and tell you this myself. vertex
Architectural Definition from Mirriam-Webster’s …
The top of the head
Secondary Definition 2. a.) The point opposite to and farthest from the base in a figure b.) A point (as of an angle, polygon, polyhedron, graph, or network) that terminates a line or curve or comprises the intersection of two or more lines or curves c.) A point where an axis of an ellipse, parabola, or hyperbola intersects the curve itself
Etymology from the Online Etymology Dictionary …
Vertex (n.): 1560s, “the point opposite the base in geometry;” from Latin vertex, meaning the “highest point,” literally “the turning point,” originally “whirling column, whirlpool,” from “vertere,” “to turn” (see versus). Meaning “highest point of anything” is first attested to 1641.
Point (n.): “c.1200, “minute amount, single item in a whole; sharp end of a sword, etc.,” a merger of two words, both ultimately from Latin pungere “prick, pierce, puncture” (see pungent). The Latin neuter pp. punctum was used as a noun, meaning “small hole made by pricking,” subsequently extended to anything that looked like one, hence, “dot, particle,” etc. This yielded Old French point “dot; smallest amount,” which was borrowed in Middle English by c.1300.”
Puncture (n.): “Late 14th century. From Late Latin “punctura,” “a pricking;” from Latin
punctus, pp. of pungere “to prick, pierce”
Prick (n.): Old English prica (n.) “point, puncture, particle.”
Turn (n.): late Old English “turnian,” “to rotate, revolve.”
Revolve (v.): Late 14th century; From Latin “revolvere,” “turn, roll back;” From re- “back, again” (see re-) + volvere “to roll” (see vulva). Meaning “travel around a central point” first recorded 1660s.
Central (adj.): From the 1640; from Latin centralis “pertaining to a center;” from “centrum.” Incursion As if you were a child throwing rocks at the high line high strung telephone line on that sticky afternoon in August. The wire, bisecting the tip tip-top of your aching arm arch, the point furthest from both you and the hot cracked earth. Turn on your small, bare heel and pitch the stone up and up, puncture the air with the gratifying swish of a hand moving though the stagnant end of summer air. Up to the wire, and over, and over and yonder. Again and again. Wipe the sweat from your tiny upper lip. ventilation
Architectural Definition from the Oxford English Dictionary… 4.a. The admission of a proper supply of fresh air, esp. to a room, building, mine, or other place where the air readily becomes stagnant and vitiated; the means or method by which this is accomplished.
Secondary Definition from the Oxford English Dictionary… 6. a. Free or open discussion of or debate upon a doctrine, question, or subject of public interest; the action or fact of bringing to public notice in this way
Etymology from the Oxford English Dictionary… < Latin ventilātiōn-, ventilātio (Pliny), an exposing to the air, < ventilāre ventilate v.; hence also Italian ventilazione, French ventilation, Spanish -acion ventilate, v. < Latin ventilāt-, participial stem of ventilāre to brandish, fan, winnow, agitate (whence Italian ventilare , Provençal, Spanish, Portuguese ventilar , French ventiler ), < vent-us wind. Compare eventilate v. † e-ventilate, v. < Latin ēventilāt- participial stem of ēventilā-re to fan, < ē- out + ventilāre to fan: see ventilate v. Compare Old French eventiler. S’eventillier – French, to move the wings wing, n. Middle English, first in plural forms wenge , wengen , wenges , < Old Norse vængir , accusative vængi , plural of vængr (Swedish, Danish vinge ) wing of a bird, aisle, etc.; replacing Old English feþra wings, plural of feþer , and fiþere (see feather n. 3). aisle, n. The forms were influenced early on by folk-etymological association with isle n., perhaps based on apprehension of an aisle as a detached or distinct portion of a church; hence the α. forms with initial i- , y- , the β. forms (with which compare the δ. forms at isle n.), and the δ. forms (with which compare the β. forms at isle n.). In 15th- and 16th- cent. British sources, post-classical Latin insula (see isle n.) was the usual word for ‘aisle’. Compare also the following apparently isolated occurrence of island n. in sense ‘aisle of a church’: isle, n. Middle English ile (ille ), < Old French ile (ille ), earlier isle, modern French île = Provençal isla , Italian isola < Latin insula island. In 15th cent. French again often spelt isle (a Latinized artificial spelling of the Renaissance), whence occas. in English in Caxton, and again persistently from Spenser onward, although the historical ile survived to c1700. The form idle was Anglo-Norman, < *isdle , with d developed between s and l , and loss of s , as in meddle ( < mesdler , mesler ), medlar ( < *mesdler , meslier ); compare also cider n., and French coudre < *cosdre , cosre , Latin consuere . The form ilde contains a parasitic d , as in vilde (vile adj., adv., and n.), tyld (tile n.1), mould n.1 (mole ), which was probably developed quite independently of idle , though formation from that by transposition was also possible: compare neld , neelde , needle n. needle, n. Technologies: Ventilated façades (via www.floornature.com)
Incursion As if you flip our innards outwards, to mold in metal, a second translation of the effects of earth’s rotation, in the matter of flesh. Anthropomorphize it all. Give lungs to our structures and tell them, breathe. Pretend they are children that can never change, or disappoint. Feel the pulse of structure as if living, an exhale, inhale, cold or warm, breath on the back of the neck so we can pretend, again, that we’re never alone.