-style2
Having columns of a specified type.
[Greek stulos, column or pillar.]
A hypostyle (Greek hupo, under) is a building whose roof rests on pillars; an epistyle (Greek epi, upon) is a main beam resting across the tops of columns; a peristyle is a row of columns surrounding a space within a building. Other terms refer to the number of columns in a building or portico, such as hexastyle, six, or tetrastyle, four.
Some examples refer to forms of animal bones: pygostyle (Greek pugē, rump), a triangular plate in a bird that typically supports the tail feathers; urostyle (Greek oura, tail), a long bone formed from fused vertebrae at the base of the vertebral column in some lower vertebrates, especially frogs and toads.
Visit Michael Quinion’s World Wide Words site for 2000+ articles on English!
Copyright © Michael Quinion 2008–. All rights reserved. Page last updated 23 September 2008.
Your comments and suggestions on the site are very welcome.