Looking at Buildings

Glossary

Set-back buttress: A buttress placed slightly back from the angle of a building.
Set-off: Inclined, projecting surface to keep water away from the wall below. Also called weathering.
Setts: Squared stones, usually of granite, used for paving or flooring.
Sexfoil: A six-lobed opening.
Sexpartite rib-vault: A rib-vault, usually set over paired bays, with an extra pair of ribs springing from between the bays.
Sgraffito: (Italian): Decoration scratched, often in plaster, to reveal a pattern in another colour beneath.
Shaft: Vertical member of round or polygonal section, including the main part of a classical column, and by extension also of a pilaster.
Shaft-ring: A ring around a circular pier or a shaft attached to a pier, typical of the 12th and 13th centuries. Also called an annulet.
Shaped gable: A gable with curved sides.
Sheila-na-gig: Female fertility figure, usually with legs apart.