cryptoporticus

[krip-tuh-pawr-ti-kuhs, -pohr-]

noun

plural

cryptoporticus 

1. a covered passage, as one underground, lighted on one side.

2. a portico at the entrance to a crypt.

Word History and Origins

Origin of cryptoporticus¹

1675–85; < Latin: covered passage; crypto-, portico

Example Sentences

The DNA testing could “determine the degree of kinship between some of the victims,” he said, like the two girls found hugging each other in the so-called House of the Cryptoporticus.

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He could even summon a classical rationale for underground living spaces: “The Romans did it. They had a thing called the cryptoporticus, so you could keep cool in the summer.”

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Last week one of the first houses to be restored with the European funds, the so-called House of the Cryptoporticus, officially reopened to the public.

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The principal remains, which are now exhibited by the dim torch of a solitary cicerone, are those of nine chambers, extending for 300 feet, and having on the north a kind of corridor, or cryptoporticus, whose vault is covered with paintings of birds, griffins, and flowers, &c.

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In 1907 excavations on the south side of the palace showed that the plan was still incomplete, and a southern cryptoporticus, and outside it a large south-west building, probably an official residence, were discovered.

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