Two other fatalities were also preventable: Pas Tenji Sherpa and his client Daniel Paul Paterson fell to their deaths when an ice cornice collapsed.—Ben Ayers, Outside Online, 26 June 2024 The estate fuses traditional Bajan style with the more formal Palladian style, a style known for its grand appearance, strict proportion, careful symmetry, and plethora of classical elements, like columns and cornices.—Emma Reynolds, Robb Report, 12 June 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 See all Example Sentences for cornice
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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