Looking at Buildings

Glossary

Tenoned purlins: Purlins (horizontal longitudinal timbers in a roof structure) tenoned into either side of the principals. Also called butt purlins.
Term: Pedestal or pilaster tapering downward, usually with the upper part of a human figure growing out of it; sometimes called a terminal figure.
Terquetra: A symbolic figure in the form of a three-cornered knot of interlaced arcs, common in Celtic art. Compare triquetra.
Terracotta: Moulded and fired clay ornament or cladding; when glazed and coloured or left white often called faience.
Terreplein: (French, lit. earth-filled): In a fort, the level surface of a rampart behind a parapet for mounting guns.
Tessellated pavement: Mosaic flooring, particularly Roman, made of tesserae, i.e. small cubes of glass, stone or brick.
Tester: (lit. head): Flat canopy over a tomb or pulpit, where it is also called a sounding-board.
Tester tomb: Tomb-chest with effigies beneath a flat canopy (tester), either free-standing (tester with four or more columns), or attached to a wall (half-tester) with columns on one side only.
Tetrastyle: Of a porch or portico: with four columns across the front.
Thermal window: A semicircular window with two mullions; also called a Diocletian window after its use in the Baths of Diocletian, Rome.