oriel

See also: Oriel

English

oriel window (sense 1)

Etymology

From Middle English oriel, from Old French oriol (“gallery, corridor”), Late Latin oriolum (“portico, hall”), probably from Latin aureolus (“gilded”), applied to an apartment decorated with gilding. See oriole. Or a diminutive of Latin os (“mouth”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔːɹiəl/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

Noun

oriel (plural oriels)

1. (architecture) A large polygonal recess in a building, such as a bay window, forming a protrusion on the outer wall.
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 202:

     The middle window of the oriel before her, just caught and reflected back the crimson light and colour. The ground below looked bright and warm compared with the shade around.

   • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Day-Dream. The Sleeping Palace.”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 151:

     The beams that thro' the Oriel shine / Make prisms in every carven glass, / And beaker brimm'd with noble wine.

2. (obsolete) A small apartment next to a hall, used for dining.

Usage notes

• There is no generally accepted difference between a bay window and an oriel. In the United States, the latter name is often applied to bay windows which are small, and either polygonal or round, and to those that are corbelled out from the wall instead of resting on the ground.

Translations

recess in a building, protruding on the outer wall

• Bulgarian: еркер m (erker)
• Esperanto: orielo
• Finnish: erkkeri (fi)
• German: Erker (de) m
• Polish: wykusz (pl) m

Anagrams

• El Rio, Le Roi, LeRoi, Leroi, Loire, Lorie, oiler, reoil

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔ.ʁjɛl/

Noun

oriel m (plural oriels)

1. (architecture) oriel, bay window

References

• “oriel”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Welsh

Etymology

From Middle English oriel, from Old French oriol (“gallery, corridor”), Late Latin oriolum (“portico, hall”), probably from Latin aureolus (“gilded”), applied to an apartment decorated with gilding.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔrjɛl/

Noun

oriel m or f (plural orielau or orielydd or orieli)

1. gallery

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	h-prothesis
oriel	unchanged	unchanged	horiel
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “oriel”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies