Monday, July 2, 2012

Dormer

Dormer, via Serafino De Tivoli, LivornoIn Italian a dormer is called “abbaino”, with the accent on the i, a word that sounds strange even to us. The obvious etym would be “abbaiare” (to bark), but this is not the case. It does probably come from the old Genoese dialectal form abbaèn, which literally means a young abbot, but was often used for young friars. In fact, the slate cover of the dormers was similar to the grey of the young friars' frocks. Others say that it is a form of “abbadino”, which comes from “badare” (to watch), or from the French baie (an opening in a wall).

External links: Dormer (Wikipedia)

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The text makes it even more a mystery to look at.

Please have a good new week.

Luis Gomez said...

Great post. I just learned a lot!

cieldequimper said...

It looks lonely. It's probably wondering why it's called like that.

Traveling Hawk said...

Anyhow, it's a good observation deck.

Arianna said...

Bella lezione di lingua! Ciao, Arianna

Dina said...

I had even forgotten the English word dormer.
It is fun to play with etymologies.

Birdman said...

Interesting etymology.

Randy said...

Interesting.

Stefan Jansson said...

That would be a vindskupa in Swedish.

Unknown said...

This reminds me of the window I posted on chimney day! :-) Lovely.