coffer Englisch Deutsch:
coffer Definition:
- A coffer in architecture, is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels were used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, also called caissons , or lacunaria , so that a coffered ceiling can be called a lacunar ceiling: the strength of the structure is in the framework of the coffers. The stone coffers of the ancient Greeks and Romans are the earliest surviving examples, but a seventh-century BC Etruscan chamber tomb in the necropolis of San Giuliano, which is cut in soft tufa-like stone reproduces a ceiling with beams and cross-beams lying on them, with flat panels filling the lacunae. For centuries, it was thought that wooden coffers were first made by crossing the wooden beams of a ceiling in the Loire Valley châteaux of the early Renaissance. In 2012, however, archaeologists working under Andrew Wallace-Hadrill at the House of the Telephus in Herculaneum discovered that wooden coffered ceilings were constructed in Roman times. Experimentation with the possible shapes in coffering, which solve problems of mathematical tiling, or tessellation, were a feature of Islamic as well as Renaissance architecture. The more complicated problems of diminishing the scale of the individual coffers were presented by the requirements of curved surfaces of vaults and domes.
| Coffer (n.) A casket, chest, or trunk |
| Coffer (n.) Fig.: Treasure or funds |
| Coffer (n.) A panel deeply recessed in the ceiling of a vault, dome, or portico |
| Coffer (n.) A trench dug in the bottom of a dry moat, and extending across it, to enable the besieged to defend it by a raking fire. |
| Coffer (n.) The chamber of a canal lock |
| Coffer (v. t.) To put into a coffer. |
| Coffer (v. t.) To secure from leaking, as a shaft, by ramming clay behind the masonry or timbering. |
| Coffer (v. t.) To form with or in a coffer or coffers |
| coffer a chest especially for storing valuables |
| coffer caisson lacuna an ornamental sunken panel in a ceiling or dome |
coffer Synonyme:
| coffer Fort Knox bank bundle away bursary cache cash register cashbox chest coin box deposit depository exchequer file fisc gold depository hutch lay away lay down lay in lay in store locker lodge money chest pack away penny bank piggy bank pork barrel public crib public till public treasury public trough put away reposit repository reservoir safe safe-deposit box salt away salt down stash store store away storehouse stow stow away stow down strong room strongbox subtreasury till treasure-house treasury vault warehouse |