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[aps]
- Architecture. a semicircular or polygonal termination or recess in a building, usually vaulted and used especially at the end of a choir in a church.
- Astronomy. an apsis.
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Origin of apse
First recorded in 1815–25; variant of apsis
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for apsidal
Historical Examples
The churches are usually small, and have an apsidal east end.
ArchitectureThomas Roger Smith
In Germany, however, apsidal transepts (Fig. 178) were built.
ArchitectureThomas Roger Smith
Further, the chancel at Bradford is rectangular, not apsidal.
The Ground Plan of the English Parish ChurchA. Hamilton Thompson
Assuming that the choir was not apsidal but square, we get the same result.
Scottish Cathedrals and AbbeysDugald Butler and Herbert Story
These are all apsidal, but planned in the usual way and not as at the Frari.
Brick and Marble in the Middle AgesGeorge Edmund Street
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- Also called: apsis a domed or vaulted semicircular or polygonal recess, esp at the east end of a church
- astronomy another name for apsis (def. 1)
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Word Origin
C19: from Latin apsis, from Greek: a fitting together, arch, from haptein to fasten
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for apsidal
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n.
"semicircular extension at the end of a church," 1846, from Latin apsis "an arch, a vault," from Greek hapsis (Ionic apsis) "loop, arch," originally "a fastening, felloe of a wheel," from haptein "fasten together," of unknown origin. The original sense in Greek seems to have been the joining of the arcs to form a circle, especially in making a wheel. The architectural term is earlier attested in English in the Latin form (1706).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper