Anc. Arch. Pl. -i. Also 8 anglicized zoophore. [L. zōphorus, zōophorus (Vitruvius), ad. Gr. ζῳφόρος, ζῳοφόρος adj. bearing figures of animals, f. ζῴον animal + -φόρος -bearing. Cf. F. zoophore (Rabelais).] A continuous frieze bearing figures of men and animals carved in relief.
1563. Shute, Archit., B iij. Vpon their heddes, he laide Epistilia, and Coronas, setting betwixt them Zophorus.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, V. xliii. 199. The Architraves, Zoophores and Cornishes.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Zophorus or Zoophorus.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Builder, 586.
1905. Times, 25 April, 5/2. They [the sculptures on the zophorus of the west front] should be taken down and stored in a museum.
So Zo(o)phoric a., bearing the figure of an animal.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., Zoophoric Column, is a Statuary Column; or a Column that bears or supports the figure of an Animal. Ibid. (1752), Zophoric.
