ashlar

[prettygoodword]

ashlar (ASH-ler) - n., a square-cut building stone; such stones collectively; masonry made with such stones; a thin, dressed rectangle of stone for facing walls; (carpentry) a short stud between joists and sloping rafters, especially near the eaves. v., to face (a wall) with ashlars.


In use since the 14th century, earlier spelling ascheler, from Middle French aisselier, crossbeam (the stone sense is unique to English), from aissele, board, diminutive of ais, plank, from Latin Latin assis/axis, board/plank (presumably not the same axis as in an axle?).

---L.

Comments

possibly tl;dr

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

That word used to confuse me comprehensively, yet I cannot remember now in which book I saw it (while teenaged).

OED1 (1885), unrevised, says yes, via axilla, diminutive. FWIW. Here's OED1:

Etymology: < Old French aiseler, aisselier, esselier < Latin axillāris , < axilla , diminutive of Latin axis , assis , ‘axle,’ also ‘board, plank’ (compare French ais , Italian asse ). Aisselle retained in Old French both senses; in modern French they seem to be shared between aisseau (= Old French aissel ) and aisselle . Old French aiseler , aisselier had senses pertaining to both; in English, senses 1 – 5 seem to arise out of the meaning ‘board, plank,’ 6 to be that which fills up the axilla, aisselle, ‘arm-pit’ or angle.

I think there are complications, but the tl;dr version definitely reduces to axle.

(It's one of the very few fundamental pIE words--chariots come with wheels and axles--and the scant evidence adduced by OED1 agrees with the little I know from primary texts, namely that OE as attested in texts has one eaxl meaning shoulder; later medieval English picks up the same word from Norse to mean the center pin of a cart again; early modern English reborrows from Latin to get axis for math/sci. The cutting tools ax and adze are related, too.)

(On the plus side, possibly, pretty soon I won't have OED access with which to check my semi-remembered philological training.)

Re: possibly tl;dr

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

I met it in Kipling (http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems_ashlar.htm), and was confused myself, but that's from a collection most teens don't read.

Okay, I suppose in context it'd be clear whether that Roman carpenter you're talking with meant a board or an axle. Still, a little startling.

Re: possibly tl;dr

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

I think my sighting was in a SF novel. I ran from poetry as a teen. :/

Agreed. I mean, it's clear in OE heroic verse that shoulders were very important at times as metaphors for being within arm's length of the seat of power (trusted person x stands at y's shoulder), for being a protector, a structural support piece--all of the literal and figurative senses. (Beowulf seems almost to parody this with its on-the-nose uses.) That one type of wooden piece is big and one small probably helped, as you say.