cornice

noun

cor·nice | \ ˈkȯr-nəs

, -nish\

Definition of cornice

(Entry 1 of 2)

1a : the molded and projecting horizontal member that crowns an architectural composition — see column illustration

b : a top course that crowns a wall

2 : a decorative band of metal or wood used to conceal curtain fixtures

3 : an overhanging mass of windblown snow or ice usually on a ridge

cornice

verb

corniced; cornicing

Definition of cornice (Entry 2 of 2)

transitive verb

: to furnish or crown with a cornice

Examples of cornice in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

The architects restored the exterior of the building, transforming its dilapidated white siding into something closer to the building’s original state with a mansard roof, cornices, and trim. — Liz Stinson, Curbed, "1880s Victorian renovated into sustainable emergency shelter for families," 23 July 2018 Two Poma lifts powered by a biodiesel generator bring skiers to the Twin Lakes Headwall for 600 acres of above-tree-line bowl skiing, including cornices to huck and rails to slide. — Megan Michelson, Outside Online, "How to Ski All Summer Long," 5 July 2018 State street, the main thoroughfare, is a ghastly avenue of ruins, parts of its most stately buildings being tumbled down, and cornices, walls and fronts of practically all principal structures shattered down. — sandiegouniontribune.com, "June 30, 1925: Quake rocks Santa Barbara," 30 June 2018 Because the block was built by a single developer, the houses were originally identical — the same height, the same cornice details. — Inga Saffron, Philly.com, "When trading up isn't an option, Philadelphia rowhouse owners build up | Inga Saffron," 21 June 2018 The architect and professor David Erdman has suggested fitting in more people in those same buildings by going even higher, adding cornices of from 5 to 25 stories atop the existing structures, which are already often about 40 stories tall already. — Austin Ramzy, New York Times, "Live in a Drainpipe? Five Extreme Ideas to Solve Hong Kong’s Housing Crisis," 26 Mar. 2018 Almost all have been retrofitted by bracing parapets around the building’s exterior, anchoring walls to the roof, and removing or stabilizing exterior features such as stairways, balconies, marquees and cornices. — John Wilkens, sandiegouniontribune.com, "San Diego's vulnerable buildings," 13 May 2018 Decorative cornices and parapets on the exteriors shake loose. — John Wilkens, sandiegouniontribune.com, "Back story: Shoring up old masonry buildings for earthquakes," 13 May 2018 Outside there was decorative bargeboard over windows and doors, decorative cornice and corbel trim. — Joanne Kempinger Demski, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "A major renovation improved 1872 Walker's Point home but kept the Gothic Revival charm," 3 May 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

Similarly he had missing sections of hand carved cornicing restored. — Ruth Bloomfield, WSJ, "A Renovated Riad Fit for a Sultan," 2 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cornice.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

History and Etymology for cornice

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).