Noah Webster

Terms

Alcove, Alley, Arbor, Arboretum, Arcade, Arch, Avenue, Aviary/Bird cage/Birdhouse, Basin, Bath/Bathhouse, Bed, Beehive, Belvedere/Prospect tower/Observatory, Border, Botanic garden, Bower, Bowling green, Bridge, Canal, Cascade/Cataract/Waterfall, Clump, Column/Pillar, Conservatory, Copse, Deer park, Dovecote/Pigeon house

Texts

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“AL’LEY, n. al’ly [Fr. allée, a passage, from aller to go; Ir. alladh. Literally, a passing or going.]

“1. A walk in a garden; a narrow passage.

“2. A narrow passage or way in a city, as distinct from a public street.

“3. A place in London where stocks are bought and sold. Ash.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“ARBOR, n. [The French express the sense by berceau, a cradle, an arbor, or bower; Sp. emparrade, from parra, a vine raised on stakes, and nailed to a wall. Qu. L. arbor, a tree, and the primary sense.]

“1. A frame of lattice work, covered with vines, branches of trees or other plants, for shade; a bower.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“ARCA’DE, n. [Fr. from arcus; Sp. arcada.] A long or continued arch; a walk arched above. Johnson.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“ARCH, n. [See Arc.] A segment or part of a circle. A concave or hollow structure of stone or brick, supported by its own curve. It may be constructed of wood, and supported by the mechanism of the work. This species of structure is much used in bridges.

“A vault is properly a broad arch. Encyc.

“2. The space between two piers of a bridge, when arched; or any place covered with an arch.

“3. Any curvature, in form of an arch.

“4. The vault of heaven, or sky. Shak.

“Triumphal arches are magnificent structures at the entrance of cities, erected to adorn a triumph and perpetuate the memory of the event.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“AV’ENUE, n. [Fr. from venir, to come or go; L. venio.]

“1. A passage; a way or opening for entrance into a place; any opening or passage by which a thing is or may be introduced.

“2. An alley, or walk in a garden, planted with trees, and leading to a house, gate, wood, &c., and generally terminated by some distant object. The trees may be in rows on the sides, or, according to the more modern practice, in clumps at some distance from each other. Encyc.

“3. A wide street, as in Washington, Columbia.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“A’VIARY, n. [L. aviarium, from avis, a fowl.]

“A bird cage; an inclosure for keeping birds confined. Wotton.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“BAS’IN, n. básn. [Fr. bassin; Ir. baisin; Arm. baçzin; It. bacino, or bacile; Port. bacia. . . .]

“1. A hollow vessel or dish, to hold water for washing, and for various other uses.

“2. In hydraulics, any reservoir of water.

“3. That which resembles a basin in containing water, as a pond, a dock for ships, a hollow place for liquids, or an inclosed part of water, forming a broad space within a strait or narrow entrance; a little bay.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“B`ATH, n. [Sax. baeth, batho, a bath; bathian, to bathe; W. badh, or baz; D. G. Sw. Dan. bad, a bath; Ir. bath, the sea; Old Phrygian bedu, water. Qu. W. bozi, to immerse.]

“1. A place for bathing; a convenient vat or receptacle of water for persons to plunge or wash their bodies in. Baths are warm or tepid, hot or cold, more generally called warm and cold. They are also natural or artificial. Natural baths are those which consist of spring water, either hot or cold, which is often impregnated with iron, and called chalybeate, or with sulphur, carbonic acid, and other mineral qualities. These waters are often very efficacious in scorbutic, bilious, dyspeptic and other complaints.

“2. A place in which heat is applied to a body immersed in some substance. Thus,

“A dry bath is made of hot sand, ashes, salt, or other matter, for the purpose of applying heat to a body immersed in them.

“A vapor bath is formed by filling an apartment with hot steam or vapor, in which the body sweats copiously, as in Russia; or the term is used, for the application of hot steam to a diseased part of the body. Encyc. Tooke.

“A metalline bath is water impregnated with iron or other metallic substance, and applied to a diseased part. Encyc. . . .

“3. A house for bathing. In some eastern countries, baths are very magnificent edifices.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“BED, n. [Sax. bed; D. bed; G. bett or beet; Goth. badi. The sense is a lay or spread, from laying or setting.] . . .

“4. A plat or level piece of ground in a garden, usually a little raised above the adjoining ground. Bacon.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“BEE’-GARDEN, n. [bee and garden.] A garden, or inclosure to set bee-hives in. Johnson. . . .

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“BEL’VIDERE, n. [L. bellus, fine, and video, to see.] . . .

“2. In Italian architecture, a pavilion on the top of an edifice; an artificial eminence in a garden. Encyc.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“BORD’ER, n. [Fr. bord; Arm. id; Sp. bordo; Port. borda; It. bordo. See Board.]

“The exterior part of a garden, and hence a bank raised at the side of a garden, for the cultivation of flowers, and a row of plants.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“BOTAN’IC, BOTAN’ICAL, a. [See Botany.] Pertaining to botany; relating to plants in general; also, containing plants, as a botanic garden.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“BOW’ER, n. [Sax. bur, a chamber or private apartment, a hut, a cottage; W. bwr, an inclosure.]

“1. A shelter or covered place in a garden, made with boughs of trees bent and twined together. It differs from arbor in that it may be round or square, whereas an arbor is long and arched. Milton. Encyc.

“2. A bed-chamber; any room in a house except the hall. Spencer. Mason.

“3. A country seat; a cottage. Shenston., B. Johnson.

“4. A shady recess; a plantation for shade. W. Brown. . . .

“BOW’ERY, a. Covering; shading as a bower; also, containing bowers. Thomson.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“BOWLING-GREEN, n. [bowl and green.]

“A level piece of ground kept smooth for bowling.

“2. In gardening, a parterre in a grove, laid with fine turf, with compartments of divers figures, with dwarf trees and other decorations. It may be used for bowling; but the French and Italians have such greens for ornament. Encyc.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“BRIDGE, n. [Sax. bric, brieg, brigg, or brye, bryeg; Dan. broe; Sw. bryggia, bro; D. brug; Ger. brücke; Prus. brigge.]

“1. Any structure of wood, stone, brick, or iron, raised over a river, pond, or lake, for the passage of men and other animals. Among rude nations, bridges are sometimes formed of other materials; and sometimes they are formed of boats, or logs of wood lying on the water, fastened together, covered with planks, and called floating bridges. A bridge over a marsh is made of logs or other materials laid upon the surface of the earth. . . . Encyc.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“CANAL’, n. [L. canalis, a channel or kennel; these being the same word differently written; Fr. canal; Arm. can, or canol; Sp. Port. canal; It. canale. See. Cane. It denotes a passage, from shooting, or passing.]

“1. A passage for water; a water course; properly, a long trench or excavation in the earth for conducting water, and confining it to narrow limits; but the term may be applied to other water courses. It is chiefly applied to artificial cuts or passages for water, used for transportation; whereas channel is applicable to a natural water course.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“CASCA’DE, n. [Fr. cascade; Sp. cascada; It. cascata, from cascare, to fall.]

“A waterfall; a steep fall or flowing of water over a precipice, in a river or natural stream; or an artificial fall in a garden. The word is applied to falls that are less than a cataract. . . .

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“CAT’ARACT, n. [L. cataracta; . . . ]

“1. A great fall of water over a precipice; as that of Niagara, of the Rhine, Danube and Nile. It is a cascade up on a great scale.

“The tremendous cataracts of America thundering in their solitudes. Irving. . . .

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“CLUMP, n. [Ger. klump; D. klomp; Sw. klimp; Dan. klump, a lump; W. clamp. It is lump with a prefix. It coincides with plump, and L. plumbum, lead; as the D. lood, G. loth, Dan. lod., Eng. lead, coincide with clod. It signifies a mass or collection. . . .]

“1. A thick, short piece of wood, or other solid substance; a shapeless mass. Hence clumper, a clot or clod.

“2. A cluster of trees or shrubs; formerly written plump. In some parts of England, it is an adjective signifying lazy, unhandy. Bailey.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“COL’UMN, n. col’um. [L. columna, columen; W. colov, a stalk or stem, a prop; colovyn, Arm. coulouenn; Fr. colonne; It. colonna; Sp. columna; Port. columna or coluna. This word is from the Celtic, signifying the stem of a tree, such stems being the first columns used. The primary sense is a shoot, or that which is set.]

“1. In architecture, a long round body of wood or stone, used to support or adorn a building, composed of a base, a shaft and a capital. The shaft tapers from the base, in imitation of the stem of a tree. There are five kinds or orders of columns. 1. The Tuscan, rude, simple and massy; the highth [sic] of which is fourteen semidiameters or modules, and the diminution at the top from one sixth to one eighth of inferior diameter. 2. The Doric, which is next in strength to the Tuscan, has a robust, masculine aspect; its highth [sic] is sixteen modules. 3. The Ionic is more slender than the Tuscan and Doric; its highth [sic] is eighteen modules. 4. The Corinthian is more delicate in its form and proportions, and enriched with ornaments; its highth [sic] should be twenty modules. 5. The Composite is a species of the Corinthian, and of the same highth [sic]. Encyc.

“In strictness, the shaft of a column consists of one entire piece; but it is often composed of different pieces, so united, as to have the appearance of one entire piece. It differs in this respect from a pillar, which primarily signifies a pile, composed of small pieces. But the two things are unfortunately confounded; and a column consisting of a single piece of timber is absurdly called a pillar or pile.

“2. An erect or elevated structure resembling a column in architecture; as the astronomical column at Paris, a kind of hollow tower with a spiral ascent to the top; gnomonic column, a cylinder on which the hour of the day is indicated by the shadow of a style; military column, among the Romans; triumphal column; &c.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“COP’PICE, COPSE, n. [Norm. coupiz, from couper, to cut, Gr. . . .]

“A wood of small growth, or consisting of underwood or brushwood; a wood cut at certain times for fuel.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“DOVE-COT, n. A small building or box in which domestic pigeons breed. . . .

“DOVE-HOUSE, n. A house or shelter for doves. . . .

“PIG’EON, n. . . .

“The domestic pigeon breeds in a box, often attached to a building, called a dovecot or pigeon-house. The wild pigeon builds a nest on a tree in the forest.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“P`ARK, n. [Sax. parruc, pearruc; Scot. parrok; W. parc; Fr. id.; It. parco; Sp. parque; Ir. pairc; G. Sw. park; D. perk. . . .]

“A large piece of ground inclosed and privileged for wild beasts of chase, in England, by the king’s grant or by prescription. To constitute a park, three things are required; a royal grant or license; inclosure by pales, a [[wall] or hedge; and beasts of chase, as deer, &c. Encyc.

“Park of artillery, or artillery park, a place in the rear of both lines of an army for encamping the artillery, which is formed in lines, the guns in front, the ammunition-wagons behind the guns . . . Encyc. . . .

“Park of provisions, the place where the sutlers pitch their tents and sell provisions, and that where the bread wagons are stationed.”

• 1828, An American Dictionary of the English Language (n.p.)

“WATERFALL, n. [water and fall.] A fall or perpendicular descent of the water of a river or stream, or a descent nearly perpendicular; a cascade; a cataract. But the word is generally used of the fall of a small river or rivulet. It is particularly used to express a cascade in a garden, or an artificial descent of water, designed as an ornament. Cyc.”

• 1848, An American Dictionary of the English Language (p. 32)

"AL'COVE, AL-COVE, n. [Sp. alcoba, composed of al, with the Ar. . . . kabba, to arch, to construct with an arch, and its derivatives, an arch, a rounded house; Eng. cubby.] . . .

"3. A covered building, or recess, in a garden.

"4. A recess in a grove."

• 1848, An American Dictionary of the English Language (p. 65)

“ARBORETUM, n. A place in a park, nursery, &C, in which a collection of trees, consisting of one of each kind, is cultivated. Brande.”

• 1848, An American Dictionary of the English Language (p. 363)

“DOVE’-COT, (duv’-kot,) n. A small building or box, raised to a considerable hight [sic] above the ground, in which domestic pigeons breed.”

• 1850, An American Dictionary of the English Language (p. 252)

“CON-SERV’A-TO-RY, n. A place for preserving any thing in a state desired, as from loss, decay, waste, or injury. . . .

“2. A greenhouse for exotics, often attached to a dwelling-house as an ornament. In large conservatories, properly so called, the plants are reared on the free soil, and not in pots. Brande.”