a. and sb. Forms: 4–6 fynial(l, -yal(l, 5–7 finiall, 6– finial. [A variant of FINAL, app. of Eng. origin, as no similar form has been found in OE. or med.Lat.]
A. adj.
† 1. = FINAL. Obs.
a. 1400[?]. Chester Pl. (Shaks. Soc.), I. 157.
| Then bouth uncions, sacrifices, and rittes ceremoniall, | |
| Of the Oulde Testamente, with legall observacion, | |
| Shall utterlye cease, and take ther ende fyniall. |
1426. Audelay, Poems, 50. There was faythfolé made a feneal corde.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys (Roxb.), 116.
| But, from þis owtlaury whan þei shuld pace, | |
| Graunt þem to dyen in fynial grace! |
1460. Pol. Rel. & L. Poems, 105.
| Who sal þe loue in fynyal blyse | |
| bot trow mankynde & anngels fre? |
1486. Bk. St. Albans, Her., B iij a. In blasyng of armys ther be. ix. quadrattis for to consider. v. quadrate finiall and iiij. royall.
2. [Suggested by the sb.] Forming the crown or completion; crowning. rare–1.
1888. A. S. Wilson, Lyric Hopeless Love, 182.
| Until … life erects its finial part, | |
| The formulation of the heart. |
B. sb. Arch. An ornament placed upon the apex of a roof, pediment, or gable, or upon each of the corners of a tower, etc.; a similar ornament serving as a termination to a canopy or the like, or to the end of an open seat in a church.
1448. Will of Hen. VI., in Willis & Clark, Cambridge, I. 369. Euery boterace fined with finialx.
1571. Indenture, 4 Jan., in H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1765), I. App. All the seid fynyshing and performyng of the seid towre with fynyalls.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. i. 223.
| From this faire Palace then he takes his Front, | |
| From that his Finials. |
1600. Holland, Livy, XXXV. x. (1609), 894. Gilded shields … were set up on the finiall or lanterne of Iupiters temple. Ibid. (1601), Pliny, XXXV. xii. 552. To set up Gargils or Antiques at the top of a Gavill end, as a finiall to the crest tiles.
1811. J. Milner, Eccl. Archit., vii. 104–5. Pinnacles, which had hitherto been rare and quite plain, were now placed at the sides of almost every arch, and on the top of every buttress, being invariably purfled and surmounted with an elegant flower, called a finial.
1853. Turner, Dom. Archit., II. vi. 255. Were it not for the finish of the northern gable with its beautiful finial.
1870. F. R. Wilson, Ch. Lindisf., 31. The low open seats are ornamented with finials.
b. transf. and fig.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. v. 985.
| But, as the Phœnix on my Front doth glister, | |
| Thou shalt the Finials of my Frame illustre. |
1632. Holland, Cyrup., 206. The absolute perfection and finiall of many noble and excellent Actions.
1876. R. F. Burton, Gorilla L., I. 96. Monotheism, the finial of the spiritual edifice.
1880. Blackmore, Mary Anerley, III. iii. 33. At this sound Lancelot Carnaby stopped from his rash venture into the water, and drew himself back into an ivied bush, which served as the finial of the little garden-hedge.
Hence Finialled ppl. a., having, or decorated with, finials.
1850. T. Inkersley, Romanesque Archit. France, 323. Two Pointed arches trifoliated, which take a quatrefoil between themselves and an external Pointed arch, surmounted by a triangle crocketed and finialled.
