impluvium

American  

[im-ploo-vee-uhm] / ɪmˈplu vi əm /

noun

• impluvia
  plural

1. a basin or tank within a compluvium.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• impluvia
  plural

Etymology

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

See Examples For:

impluvium impluvia

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

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

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

This was a very usual arrangement in the Atrium of a Roman house with the impluvium in the centre.

From The Excavations of Roman Baths at Bath by Davis, Charles E.

Below, lions' heads are placed along the cornice at intervals, forming spouts through which the water was discharged into the impluvium beneath.

From Museum of Antiquity A Description of Ancient Life by Haines, T. L. (Thomas Louis)

The houses of Italy and of the south generally were constructed to look inwards upon open impluvia, colonnaded courts and garden plots, and, as befitted a hot climate, they had few outer windows.

From The Romanization of Roman Britain by Haverfield, F. (Francis)

May not the word umbrella have been applied to various sorts of impluvia?

From Notes and Queries, Number 64, January 18, 1851 by Various