Etymologically
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pavilion

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Pronunciation

  • /pəˈvɪljən/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pavilon, also pavilun and paviloun,[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman pavillioun, also paviloun and pavelion, and Old French paveillon, also pavillon,[5][2] which meant a military tent from the early 12th century.[5] The French word is from Latin pāpiliō (“butterfly, moth”), which in post-classical Latin also meant a tent,[5][6][2][7] probably at first in army slang;[5] the tent was named for its likeness to a butterfly with outspread wings, as the flaps at the entrance, when turned back, suggested to Jerome and Isidore.[5][6][3][8] Weekley found the reason unclear.[9] The Latin word for butterfly is itself of unknown origin,[8] and Merriam-Webster compares Old English fīfalde (“butterfly”), Old High German fīfaltra and Old Norse fīfrildi (“butterfly”).[10] The same Latin source gave padiglione, pabellón and paviljoen.[5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A large and stately tent, usually rising to a central peak: about 1225, in the Worcester glosses to Old English homilies.[5][11] Barnhart dates pavilun in this sense probably before 1200,[2] and Etymonline puts it in the early 13th century, for a tent raised on posts and used as a movable dwelling.[3]

Semantic evolution

From the tent, the word passed to things that cover or shelter like one: in poetry, from Hoccleve's time (about 1425), any dwelling place or hiding place likened to a tent;[5][12] a small canopy, a sense now rare, is recorded from about 1500.[5][12] Johnson (1755) still defined it as a tent, a temporary or movable house.[13] The building senses began in the 17th century: an ornamental building of light construction for shelter or refreshment in a park or garden is recorded from 1616 in the OED,[5][11] but from the 1680s in Etymonline,[3] and in architecture a projecting part of a façade from about 1676.[5][7] In British use a pavilion was a building at a sports ground, especially a cricket ground, from 1799,[5][14] and one of a group of separate blocks forming a hospital or similar institution from 1818,[5][11] a sense Etymonline dates from 1858.[3] French used pavillon for a ship's flag from 1541,[5] and English borrowed that sense from the late 16th to the late 18th century;[12][11] Weekley suggests that the flag repeated the colours of the knight's pavilion set up on the poop.[9] Since 1750 the word has also named the lower part of a brilliant-cut diamond.[11][14]

Timeline

  • probably before 1200 – pavilun, a large, elaborate tent.[2]
  • c. 1225 – a large, stately tent.[5]
  • c. 1400 – verb, to enclose in or as in a pavilion.[5][11]
  • c. 1425 – figurative, something likened to a tent; a shelter.[5]
  • before 1509 – a small canopy.[5][11]
  • 1616 – an ornamental building in a park or garden.[5][11]
  • c. 1676 – a projecting part of a building.[5]
  • 1725 – in heraldry, a tent as a bearing.[5]
  • 1750 – the lower part of a brilliant-cut diamond.[11]
  • 1799 – a building at a sports ground, especially for cricket.[5][11]
  • 1818 – one of the separate blocks of a hospital or institution.[5][11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A light, often open and ornamental building used for shelter, rest or refreshment, as in a park or garden; a summerhouse.[14][5]
  2. (chiefly British) A building at a sports ground, especially a cricket ground, where players change.[14][5]
  3. A building or temporary structure for housing an exhibition: the Danish pavilion at the trade fair.[14]
  4. A large, often richly decorated tent with a peaked top.[14][10][5]
  5. One of a set of separate buildings that together make up a hospital or other large institution.[14][5]
  6. (architecture) A part of a building that projects from the rest, forming a corner or central feature of a façade.[10][5]
  7. One of the facets on the lower part of a brilliant-cut stone, between the girdle and the culet.[14][11]

Verb

  1. To shelter, enclose or cover in or as if in a pavilion.[10][5]

Word family

  • pavilion roof
  • papillon
  • papilionaceous

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  9. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  10. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  12. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins