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PLINTH

Volume 8 · 131 words · 1778 Edition

ORLE, or ORLO, in architecture, a flat square member, in the form of a brick. It is used as the foundation of columns, being that flat square table under the moulding of the base and pedestal at the bottom of the whole order. It seems to have been originally intended to keep the bottom of the original wooden pillars from rotting. Vitruvius also calls the tuscan abacus plinth.

Plinth of a Statue, &c. is a base, either flat, round, or square, that serves to support it.

Plinth of a Wall, denotes two or three rows of bricks advancing out from a wall; or, in general, any flat high moulding, that serves in a front-wall to mark the floors, to sustain the eaves of a wall, or the lamer of a chimney.