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

The vault, some thirty feet high, formed a sort of azure velarium bordered with long yellow palm-leaves.

From The Works of Theophile Gautier, Volume 5 The Romance of a Mummy and Egypt by Frederick C. de (Frederick Caesar de) Sumichrast

Where the huge velarium that Nero had stretched across the Colosseum at Rome, on which were represented the starry sky, and Apollo driving a chariot drawn by white gilt-reined steeds?

From Oscar Wilde by Leonard Cresswell Ingleby

Where is the huge velarium that Nero stretched across the Colosseum at Rome, on which was represented the starry sky, and Apollo driving a chariot drawn by steeds?

From Oscar Wilde by Leonard Cresswell Ingleby

Where the huge velarium that Nero had stretched across the Colosseum at Rome, that Titan sail of purple on which was represented the starry sky, and Apollo driving a chariot drawn by white, gilt-reined steeds?

From The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

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

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

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

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

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