GLOSSARY OF ARCHITECTURAL
Terms   D - F

• DADO Panelling, usually wood, that is applied to the lower portion of a wall, above a baseboard.

• DEMI-BASTION In military architecture, a bastion composed of only two angled faces.

• DENTIL A small, tooth-like square block, used in a row as a decorative feature in a cornice.

• DORMER A window that projects from a sloping roof, with a small roof of its own.

• DOVETAIL A joint of two interlocking blocks that flare outwards in the shape of the tail of a dove.

• DOWLES Pins of wood or iron used at the edges of boards in laying floors, to avoid the appearance of the nails on the surface.

• DRESSED Of stone cut square on all sides and smoothed on the face.

• DRIP MOULDING A projecting moulding that is shaped to allow rainwater to drip off its edge, away from the wall below it.

• DRUM A cylindrical masonry component that forms one unit of a column; also a cylindrical stage below a dome.

• EAVE The projecting edge of a roof.

• ECHINUS A convex projecting moulding near the top of a capital.

• EDWARDIAN STYLE The generous large-form Classical Revival style that was commonly used in buildings of the 1900 to 1920's.

• ENGAGED Of a column or pilaster: attached to a wall.

• ENTABLATURE The horizontal component, usually decorated, that lies directly above the column or other support; in classical architecture, the entablature is composed of an architrave, a frieze and a cornice.

• FASCIA A plain horizontal band (i.e. a vertical surface), as in a board below an eave.

• FINIAL An ornamental projection at the top of a gable, roof, or other high component.

• FLÈCHE A slender spire atop a tower; French for 'arrow'.

• FLUTES Vertical grooves on the shaft of a column or other support.

• FLYING BUTTRESS An arch or half-arch that transfers the thrust of a vault or roof from an upper part of a wall to a lower support.

• FRAME The structural skeleton of a building; as an adjective, referring to timber structure.

• FRIEZE The middle portion of an entablature, or any decorated horizontal band.

• FRONTISPIECE The central portion of the main facade.