velarium

American  

[vuh-lair-ee-uhm] / vəˈlɛər i əm /

noun

Roman Antiquity.

• velaria
  plural

1. an awning drawn over a theater or amphitheater as a protection from rain or the sun.

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velarium British  

/ vɪˈlɛərɪəm /

noun

1. an awning used to protect the audience in ancient Roman theatres and amphitheatres

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• velaria
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of velarium

1825–35; < Latin vēlārium (a word known only from a passage in Juvenal; the intended sense may be “curtain” rather than “awning”); see velum, -ary

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

velarium velaria

In the cloth velarium used by Roman emperors to cover the Colosseum, Stone found his solution to roofing the largest free-span circular building ever erected.

From Time Magazine Archive

At that same moment a resonant manly voice high up under the velarium exclaimed,— "Peace to the martyrs!"

From Quo Vadis: a narrative of the time of Nero by Jeremiah Curtin

This velarium was an awning that was stretched above the heads of the spectators to protect them from the sun.

From The Wonders of Pompeii by Marc Monnier

A fierce sunlight streams down upon the velarium, and through the green blinds, in the conservatory.

From The 'Mind the Paint' Girl A Comedy in Four Acts by Sir Arthur Wing Pinero

The medusoids have no true velum; in some cases a structure more or less resembling this organ, termed a velarium, is present, permeated by endodermal canals.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 6 "Cockaigne" to "Columbus, Christopher" by Various

The cry, swelled by every Latin tongue, shook the velaria over the consul's head.

From Ben-Hur; a tale of the Christ by Lewis Wallace

Indeed the Carthaginian captives could distinguish the velaria spread over the courtyards of their houses, beyond the gulf on the slopes of Byrsa.

From Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert

Moreover, there is no reason but the existing filth why the roadways should not have translucent velaria to pull over in bright sunshine and wet weather.

From Anticipations Of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human life and Thought by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

Wool, however, was the most common material, and the velaria made in Apulia were most esteemed, on account of the whiteness of the wool.

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

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