Saturday 15 February 2014

Entymology

After the renewal of the mansard roof I've had to find out the names of carpentry joists in order to describe a problem with water when there shouldn't be any on the inside.   There are legs (jambes de force ou chevrons) which support 'la panne sablière', junction of 'le brisi' and 'la terrasson'.  In English they are called 'ashlaring'.  What a wonderful sound!

Ashlaring is a collective noun given to ashlars, which are short upright timbers that are fixed from the joists to the rafters to form the walls of a garret/attic/grenier. They cut off the acute angle between the roof and the floor.
Ashlaring is also a term in masonry when squared stone, cut roughly true on all faces is positioned next to others so as to provide very thin mortar joints.  It is also a collection of such stones.

It can also be used as a verb to ashler / to ashlar meaning to face with ashlars!

The word originated in the early 18th century from 14th century Middle English ascheler and  Middle French aisselier  and Latin axilläris,  the latter creating the word axis.  

No comments:

Post a Comment

It would be lovely to hear what you think.