impluvium
Americannoun
plural
impluviaEtymology
Origin of impluvium
1805–15; < Latin, equivalent to impluv-, base of impluere to rain (upon, into) ( im- im- 1 + pluere to rain; cf. pluvial) + -ium -ium
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Where the gift shop and other later additions now sit was once an impluvium, a Roman-era cistern that sat in a soaring 50-foot-high space that was open to the sky.
From New York Times • Apr. 11, 2023
These main streets, which ran at right angles to each other, had underground drainage made of a sunken impluvium with an outlet to carry away storm water.
From The Guardian • Mar. 18, 2016
The house possesses features that match the horizontally fluted walls, pillars, central impluvium and carved decorations observed in the architecture of ancient Benin.
From The Guardian • Mar. 18, 2016
He walked into the impluvium, but heard nothing and saw nothing.
From Orpheus in Mayfair and Other Stories and Sketches by Baring, Maurice
Opposite the throne was a finely wrought tank of gypsum slabs—a feature borrowed perhaps from an Egyptian palace—approached by a descending flight of steps, and originally surmounted by cypress-wood columns, supporting a kind of impluvium.
From The Sea-Kings of Crete by Baikie, James
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
