Forms: 6– cornice, 7 cornishe, corniche (coronix), 6–8 coronice, 6 coronich, (cornix), 6–9 cornish. [The forms cornice, cornishe, were taken immed. from F. and It. equivalents: cf. 16th c. F. cornice, cornise, in Cotgr. cornice, corniche ‘the cornish or brow of a piller or wall,’ mod.F. corniche; ad. It. cornice ‘the ledge whereon they hang tapistrie in any roome; also an out-jetting peece or part of a house or wall’ (Florio); cornice represents the It. spelling; F. corniche, Eng. cornish derive from It. pronunciation. The variants coronix, coronice, are based on 16–17th c. latinized forms.
It. cornice, the source of the word in all the mod. langs., is known from the beginning of Italian literature, being frequent in Dante. In form it is identical with cornice:—L. cornix, īcem crow (Corvus Cornix), and by Florio it is treated as the same word; in the Vocabolario della Crusca the two are separated. The L. term for the architectural cornice was corōna (Vitruvius), and some have conjectured that the It. cornice is in some way derived or corrupted from that word, the form coronix cited by Du Cange, and used in Eng. by Shute in 1563, being assumed to be a connecting link. But there is no evidence for L. coronix before 16th c. Du Cange’s example is of 1643, his example of cornix of 1605; both appear to be merely latinized forms of the Italian word, coronix being contaminated by the desire to connect it with corōna. Another suggestion is that the It. cornice was in some way related to L. corōnis, -idem = Gk. κορωνίς, given in Ηesychius in the sense τὸ τελευταῖον τῆς οἰκοδομῆς ἐπίθεμα ‘the finishing piece placed on the building,’ the ‘cope-stone.’ But this could not have phonetically given It. cornice, unless indeed the Gk. word had passed into popular Italian use, and been assimilated by popular perversion to cornice crow. Of this we have no evidence.]
1. Arch. A horizontal molded projection that crowns or finishes a building or some part of a building; spec. the uppermost member of the entablature of an order surmounting the frieze.
1563. Shute, Archit., C ij b. The Coronix of the Pedestalle. Ibid., D iv b. The Architraue, frise, & Cornishe.
1575. Laneham, Lett. (1871), 56. Columns … that supported a cumly Cornish.
1624. Wotton, Archit. (1672), 22. They [pillars] have all their … upper Adjuncts, as Architrave, Frize, and Cornice.
1656. Earl Monm., Advt. fr. Parnass., 277. Augustus raised up the walls thereof even to the highest Cornish.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, 12. Cornishes and Frontispieces over the Windows.
1681. Cotton, Poet. Wks. (1765), 329. With all its Mouldings, Frize and Coronice.
1726. Leoni, trans. Alberti’s Archit., I. 97 a. Let there be Cornices of Stone projecting out a cubit.
1833. Act 3–4 Will. IV., c. 46 § 114. The water from the roofs and cornices of all houses or other buildings.
1847. Lytton, Lucretia (1853), 33. The same enriched frieze and cornice.
b. An ornamental molding, usually of plaster, running round the wall of a room or other part of the interior of a building, immediately below the ceiling; the uppermost molding of a piece of wainscoting; a picture-molding, or the like; also, the ornamental projection within which curtains are hung.
1670. Lassels, Voy. Italy, i. (1698), 81. Over it runs a cornish of silver plate nailed to the wall.
1773. Phil. Trans., LXIII. 326. The gilding of the cornish … was quite blackened.
1800. W. Taylor, in Monthly Mag., XIII. 18. The cornish of the wainscotting.
1858. Dickens, Lett., 28 Aug. A great piece of the cornice of the ceiling falling with a great crash.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Cornice … a gilded or other ornamental work within which window curtains are suspended.
2. A ring or molding encircling a cannon (It. cornice degli orecchioni, Florio; see also cornice-ring in 4).
1571. Digges, Pantom. (1591), 178. The Excesse wherby the Semidiameter of the Ringe or Cornice of the Head dooth exceed the Cornice of the Coyle [of a cannon].
1645. N. Stone, Enchirid. Fortif., 57. The mussell-Ring or Coronice.
ǁ 3. Applied to a path or road along the edge of precipice. (Not an English sense.)
1823. Galt, Entail, III. xvi. 153–4. The road … lay on the cornice of a precipice. Ibid. (1824), Rothelan, III. 250. The road towards it is a cornice, as the Sicilians ingeniously call the paths which wind along the edge of precipices.
1883. Burton & Cameron, To Gold Coast, I. iii. 56. Seixal, on the north-west coast, famous for its corniche-road.
4. Comb., as cornice-hook, a hook for hanging pictures from a picture-cornice; cornice-piece, a piece of molding forming a cornice; cornice-plane, an ogee plane for planing moldings; cornice-pole, a pole carrying rings from which curtains are hung; cornice-rail (see quot.); cornice-ring, the ring or molding encircling a cannon immediately behind the muzzle-ring; = ASTRAGAL 3.
1794. W. Felton, Carriages (1801), I. 13. This [the front roof-rail], with the door-case rails, has *Cornice-pieces nailed on.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 298/2. *Cornice poles … coated with thin brass.
1794. Felton, Carriages, Gloss., *Cornice Rails, the top framing of the body of a coach or chariot, called roof rails.
1645. N. Stone, Enchir. Fortif., 56. The Astragall, or *Coronice ring.
1692. Capt. Smith’s Seaman’s Gram., II. vi. 94. The Astragal, or Cornice Ring.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., s.v. Ordnance, Cornish Ring of a Gun, is the next from the Muzzle Ring backwards.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., Corniche ring of a piece of ordinance.
