FLUTES, or FLUTINGS, in Architecture, are perpendicular channels or cavities cut along the shaft of a column or pilaster. They are supposed to have been first introduced in imitation of the plaits of women's robes; and are therefore called by the Latins striges and rugæ. The French call them cannelures, as being excavations; and we, flutes or flutings, as bearing some resemblance to the musical instrument so called. They are chiefly affected in the Ionic order, in which they had their first rise; though they are also used in all the richer orders, as the Corinthian and Composite; but rarely in the Doric, and scarce ever in the Tuscan.