{"id":471,"date":"2007-08-22T20:11:35","date_gmt":"2007-08-22T19:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/22\/spandrels_and_squinches\/"},"modified":"2007-08-22T20:11:35","modified_gmt":"2007-08-22T19:11:35","slug":"spandrels_and_squinches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=471","title":{"rendered":"Spandrels and squinches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While reading an interesting post on <a href=\"http:\/\/ebbolles.typepad.com\/babels_dawn\/2007\/08\/moving-beyond-t.html\">Babel&#8217;s Dawn<\/a> today, I came across the word <strong>spandrel<\/strong>. I have heard it before but wasn&#8217;t entirely sure what it meant.<\/p>\n<p>According to  <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Spandrel\">Wikipedia<\/a>, a <strong>spandrel<\/strong> is &#8220;the space between two arches or between an arch and a rectangular enclosure&#8221;. The word spandrel is also used in the theory of evolution to describe a non-adaptive trait formed as a side effect to an adaptive one, which the context in which it was used on Babel&#8217;s Dawn.<\/p>\n<p>The information about spandrels also mentions a related architectural term: <strong>squinch<\/strong>, which is a &#8220;piece of construction used for filling in the upper angles of a square room so as to form a proper base to receive an octagonal or spherical dome&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Another <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pitt.edu\/~medart\/menuglossary\/squinch.htm\">definition<\/a> tells us that a <strong>squinch<\/strong> is an arch, or a system of concentrically wider and gradually projecting arches, placed at the corners of a square base to act as the transition to a circular dome placed on the base.<\/p>\n<p>The etymology of spandrel is somewhat uncertain, but it&#8217;s thought to come from the Latin word <em>expandre<\/em>, to expand, via the French <em>espandre<\/em>, to expand, extend.<\/p>\n<p>Squinch is an alternative form of scuncheon, from the Middle English <em>sconchon<\/em>, from the Old French <em>escoinson<\/em>, from the Latin <em>ex<\/em>, out, plus <em>cuneus<\/em>, wedge.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s an illustration to help you tell the difference between spandrels and squinches.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"450\" height=\"231\" alt=\"an illustration of spandrels and a squinch\" src=\"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/blog\/squinch.gif\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While reading an interesting post on Babel&#8217;s Dawn today, I came across the word spandrel. I have heard it before but wasn&#8217;t entirely sure what it meant. According to Wikipedia, a spandrel is &#8220;the space between two arches or between an arch and a rectangular enclosure&#8221;. The word spandrel is also used in the theory [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,10,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-language","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}