Arch. Pl. tholi. Also in Gr. form tholos, pl. tholoi. [L. tholus, a. Gr. θόλος a round building with a conical or vaulted roof.] A circular domed building or structure; a dome, cupola; a lantern.
1644. Evelyn, Diary, 7 Nov. A pretty odd fabriq, with a Tribunal, or Tholus within.
a. 1668. Lassels, Voy. Italy (1698), I. 188. On the top of it [the Domo of Florence] stands mounted a fair Cupola (or Tholus).
1730–6. Bailey (folio), Tholus, the Roof of a Temple or Church, the Centre, Scutcheon, or Knot in the middle of an arched Roof, the Lanthorn or Cupola of a publick Hall.
1832. Gell, Pompeiana, I. iv. 47. A circular or polygonal tholos.
1841. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., IV. 117/2. The tholus, or concave dome.
b. Gr. Antiq. An excavated circular tomb of the Mycenæan age, domed and lined with masonry.
1885. Athenæum, 12 Dec., 773/2. Mr. Pullan … was astonished to find that the lower cell of the so-called prison of St. Peter at Rome was part of a tholus.
1896. Tholoi [see DROMOS].
1910. Edin. Rev., April, 479. Among the forms sepulchre are the great bee-hive tholos [etc.].
attrib. 1902. R. C. Bosanquet, in Ann. Brit. Sch. at Athens, VIII. 305. Tholos-burial was introduced in eastern Crete towards the close of the Minoan Age.
