Looking at Buildings

Glossary

Palmette: Classical ornament like a symmetrical palm shoot.
Panel frame: (Scots): Moulded stone frame round an armorial panel, often placed over the entrance to a tower house.
Panelling: Wooden lining to interior walls, made up of vertical members (muntins) and horizontals (rails) framing panels; also called wainscot. Raised and fielded: with the central area of the panel (field) raised up. Also used for stonework treated with sunk or raised panels.
Panel tracery: Bar tracery with even upright divisions made by a horizontal transom or transoms.
Pantile: Roof tile of curved S-shaped section.
Pantry: In a medieval house or college, a room off the screens passage, used for storing provisions; compare buttery.
Parabolic arch: An arch shaped like a chain suspended from two level points, but inverted.
Parapet: Wall for protection at any sudden drop, e.g. on a bridge, or at the wall-head of a castle where it protects the parapet walk or wall-walk. Also used to conceal a roof.
Parchemin panel: With a vertical central rib or moulding branching in ogee curves to meet the four corners of the panel. Sometimes used with linenfold panelling.
Parclose screen: A screen separating a chapel from the rest of the church.