Advertisement A week ago on the southern route, a harrowing human traffic jam left dozens of climbers shuffling in single file along a narrow ridge just below the summit — a pileup that turned deadly when a snow cornice collapsed beneath their feet.—Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times, 1 June 2024 Give ridgelines a wide berth, as cornices can break a long way back from the visible edge.—John Meyer, The Denver Post, 12 May 2024 The Northwest Avalanche Center posted a statement on March 30, based on a preliminary report, that Shorey’s death was the result of a cornice (defined as an overhanging mass of snow) fall.—David Chiu, Peoplemag, 4 Apr. 2024 Close by, a snow cornice had broken off and tipped into the crater.—Emily Mae Czachor, CBS News, 3 Apr. 2024 Nearby, a snow cornice close to the rim had fractured and fell into the crater of the mountain.—Jillian Sykes, CNN, 3 Apr. 2024 The 27-year-old from Washington was skiing a ridgeline off Mary’s Nipple from Grand Targhee Ski Resort when the cornice broke under him and sent him plummeting 100 feet into the basin below, Teton County Search and Rescue said in a Wednesday, Feb. 21 post on Facebook.—Brooke Baitinger, Idaho Statesman, 22 Feb. 2024 Blowing snow can create wind loading and build up into cornices, creating an overhang that can eventually fall and trigger an avalanche below.—CBS News, 11 Jan. 2024 The tree line ends at 1,500 feet, so unlike in the northeast or the Rockies the view consisted only of icy cornices, peaks, and gullies sheathed in a penetrating blanket of snow.—David Amsden, Condé Nast Traveler, 2 Jan. 2024
Verb
The largest reception room has ornate cornicing on the ceiling, an original fireplace and, between brass chandeliers, a disco ball.—Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 16 May 2024 Naturally, there are a ton of period details inside, including ornate fireplaces and ceiling cornicing.—Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 28 Apr. 2023 To match the profile and ornamentation of the lost cornice, which features rosettes alternating with concave brackets, Allen photographed the sister cornice at 31 Greene.—John Freeman Gill, New York Times, 24 Apr. 2020 Similarly he had missing sections of hand carved cornicing restored.—Ruth Bloomfield, WSJ, 2 May 2018
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cornice.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Noun
earlier cornish, borrowed from Middle French corniche, borrowed from Italian cornice "cornice on a column," earlier, "ledge projecting from a rock wall," perhaps going back to Latin cornīc-, cornīx "crow" (assuming a figurative sense "projection, something jutting out" in Vulgar Latin), derivative (with -īc-, -ix, particularizing suffix), from a base *kor-n-, perhaps from the oblique of an n-stem *kor-ōn seen in Greek korṓnē "crow"; the base *kor- "corvid," with different suffixation, seen also in Umbrian curnaco "crow," Greek korak-, kórax "raven," Latin corvus "raven," and, if going back to Indo-European *ḱor-, Russian soróka "magpie," Polish sroka, Serbian & Croatian svrȁka (with secondary -v-), Lithuanian šárka (from Balto-Slavic *ḱor-Hk-), Sanskrit śāri- "kind of bird"
Note:
For an association between something projecting and a corvid cf. the etymology of corbel entry 1. Italian cornice has also been seen as an outcome of Greek korōnid-, korōnís "crook-beaked, curved, curved pen stroke, copestone (in the lexicographer Hesychius)," though phonologically this is implausible. The base *kor-/*ḱor- is ultimately onomatopoeic, perhaps an expansion of *kr-, the initial of other independently derived Indo-European words for corvid birds (cf. crow entry 1, raven entry 1).
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