frieze

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 30, 2008 is: frieze • \FREEZ\  • noun 1 : the part of an entablature between the architrave and the cornice 2 : a sculptured or richly ornamented band (as on a building or piece of furniture) 3 : a band, line, or series suggesting a frieze Examples: "The house commands a hilltop and is forbidding, imposing, but softened with a frieze of beautiful American elms." (Lady Bird Johnson, A White House Diary) Did you know? Today's word is not the only "frieze" in English. The other "frieze" refers to a kind of heavy wool fabric. Both of the "frieze" homographs derive from French, but each entered that language through a different channel. The woolen homograph is from the Middle Dutch word "vriese," which also refers to coarse wool. The "frieze" that we are featuring as our word today is from the Latin word "frisium," meaning "embroidered cloth." That word evolved from "phrygium" and "Phrygia," the name of an ancient country of Asia Minor whose people excelled in metalwork, wood carving, and (unsurprisingly) embroidery. That embroidery lineage influenced the use of "frieze" for the middle division of an entablature, which commonly has a decorated surface resembling embroidered cloth. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.