cornice

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French corniche, also cornice,^[2][3][4] and directly borrowed from Italian cornice (“ornamental moulding; ledge for hanging tapestry”).^[4][5] According to the OED, the spelling cornice is the Italian one, while corniche and an earlier English spelling reflect the Italian pronunciation.^[4] The origin of the Italian word, the source in all the modern languages, is disputed.^[4] In form it is the same as the Italian word for crow, from Latin cornīx (“crow”), and Barnhart, Weekley and Hoad take the moulding from the bird, with corbel as a parallel, Barnhart pointing to its curved beak or feet.^[2][6][7][4] Others start from corōnis (“curved line, flourish”), from Ancient Greek κορωνίς (korōnís, “curved object”), related to κορώνη (korṓnē, “ring, crown”) and so to crown, with the form perhaps influenced by the Italian word for crow.^[8][9][3][5] Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English combine the two, the crow word blended with the Greek word for a coping stone.^[7][10] The OED doubts both this and a link with corōna, the architectural term in Vitruvius: the supposed Latin forms for the moulding appear only from the 16th century, as latinized versions of the Italian, and the Greek word could have given the Italian one only by passing into popular use and being assimilated to the crow word, of which there is no evidence.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A horizontal moulded projection that crowns a building or part of one: 1563, in J. Shute's First Groundes of Architecture,^[4][3] in the form cornishe according to Barnhart.^[2] The OED notes that the Italian word goes back to the beginning of Italian literature and is frequent in Dante.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The architectural sense spread from the top of a building to the top of a room: the plaster moulding below a ceiling is recorded from 1670,^[4] or the 1660s in Etymonline.^[5] Johnson (1755) gave only "the highest projection of a wall or column".^[11] Other things that project or run along an edge took the name later: a moulding round a cannon from 1591,^[4] a road along a precipice from 1823, which the OED says is not an English sense and equates with corniche,^[4] and, in Tyndall in 1871, an overhang of ice and snow on a ridge.^[4] The verb, formed from the noun, is recorded from 1744.^[4][3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged adds a member of a piece of furniture and a band that hides curtain fixtures.^[3] The spelling cornish is now dialectal.^[12]

Timeline

• 1563 – a moulded projection crowning a building.^[4][3][2]
• 1591 – a moulding encircling a cannon.^[4]
• 1670 – an ornamental moulding below a room's ceiling.^[4] Etymonline has the 1660s.^[5]
• 1744 – verb, to furnish with a cornice.^[4][3]
• 1823 – a road along the edge of a precipice.^[4]
• 1871 – an overhang of ice and snow on a ridge or cliff.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The moulded horizontal projection that crowns a wall or building; specifically, the top part of an entablature, above the frieze.^{[3][13][4][12]}
2. An ornamental moulding running round a room just below the ceiling.^[4][12]
3. A decorative band that hides curtain fixtures.^[3]
4. A similar projecting member on a piece of furniture.^[3]
5. An overhanging ledge of snow and ice on the edge of a ridge or cliff.^[13][4][12]

Verb

1. To furnish or crown with a cornice: The builders corniced the new wing to match the old.^[13][3][4]

Related words

• corniche
• corona
• crown
• corbel

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins