English
cornice
Cornice may come from Middle French corniche.
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English cornice
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1834, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, London: Richard Bentley: “That ceiling was covered with square compartments,[...] It was…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600cornicheWiktionary, English corniceuncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1834corniceWiktionary, English cornice. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1834, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, London: Richard Bentley: “That ceiling was covered with square compartments,[...] It was…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ‘to turn, bend’
across, share, short, card, cross, screen, cancer, shirt, circle, circuit, score, crucial, curve, scare, circus, circulation, skirt, curb, scar, scrutiny, shrine, crest, cancellation, circa, carnival, shear, shred, incarceration, raffle, circulate, carcinoma, shrewd, carnage, crux, coronary, scorpion, shard, corona, cirque, crepe, 118 more
Today it means
noun A horizontal architectural element of a building, projecting forward from the main walls, originally used as a means of directing rainwater away from the building's walls.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “cornice”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Middle French corniche / cornice