skew
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /skjuː/
ipa: /skju/
rhymes: -uː
homophone: SKU
Forms: form: skews
Etymology: From Middle English skeu, skew (“stone with a sloping surface forming the slope of a gable, offset of a buttress, etc.”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman eschu, escuwe, eskeu, or Old Northern French eschieu, eskieu, eskiu, from Old French escu, escut, eschif (“a shield”) (modern French écu), from Latin scūtum (“a shield”), from Proto-Indo-European *skewH- (“to cover, protect”) or *skey- (“to cut, split”).
Senses: examples: text: How many yards of roofing and serking, in a Roof 45 feet, 8 in. long, from skew to skew; and 21 feet, 8 in. deep, from ridge to easing, including 9 inches for wall plates or double eave?
ref: 1838, James Morrison, “Appendix II. Duodecimals. Or Cross Multiplication.”, in A Concise System of Commercial Arithmetic, Adapted to Modern Practice: […], new edition, London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], →OCLC, page 210:
text: Skew, Skew-table: the term skew is still used in the north for a stone built into the bottom of a gable or other similar situation to support the coping above [...]
ref: [1845, [John Henry Parker], “Skew, Skew-table”, in A Glossary of Terms Used in Grecian, Roman, Italian, and Gothic Architecture, 4th edition, volume I, Oxford, Oxfordshire: John Henry Parker; London: David Bogue, →OCLC, page 340:
topics: architecture
glosses: A stone at the foot of the slope of a gable, the offset of a buttress, etc., cut with a sloping surface and with a check to receive the coping stones and retain them in place; a skew-corbel.
examples: text: Gable Copings or Skews are of various forms of section, the most common varieties being the parallel sided, Fig. 654; the weathered, or feather-edged, Fig. 655; and the saddle-backed, Fig. 656. [...] The skews at the eaves terminate in what is termed a club-skew or skew-corbel. This admits of an infinite variety of forms, according to the style of the building, but the object is the same in all—namely, to afford a support and abutment to the skew.
ref: 1855, J. N., “MASON WORK”, in John C[halmers] Morton, editor, A Cyclopedia of Agriculture, Practical and Scientific, […], volume II, Glasgow; Edinburgh: Blackie and Son […], →OCLC, page 389:
text: The architecture of the steadings given in Plates I. to IX. is of the simplest description—plain rubble-work, with broached ashlar corners, rebates, lintels, and skews, and the roofs extending in stretches, and terminating in gables, without points to be affected by the weather. [...] A somewhat more ornamental style is given in Plate XV. of the farm-steading at Coleshill, in Berkshire, the corners and rebates being in raised work, and the skews of the gables ridged and pinnacled.
ref: 1861, Henry Stephens, Robert Scott Burn, “Division Second—Plans of Existing Steadings”, in The Book of Farm-buildings: Their Arrangement and Construction, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, 1st book (Principles of Arrangement), paragraph 276, page 50:
topics: architecture
glosses: The coping of a gable.
examples: text: [page xxviii] Here ensuithe an abstracte of the freemasons worke. [...] It'm, the walle new made on the west syde of the watergate [...] a bottres made wᵗ harde asheler of Kent, l. foot, and in Cane asheler a skew vj. foot, [...] [page xxix] It'm, at the Juell Hows door, iij. spaces covered wᵗ skew and crest, amontying xxxvj. fote of stone.
ref: 1533, John Bayley, “Appendix to Part I. [The Following is Extracted from a Survey Made of the Tower, in Order to a General Repair of Its Different Buildings, in the Twenty-third Year of King Henry the Eighth, Preserved in the Chapter-house at Westminster.]”, in The History and Antiquities of the Tower of London, […] In Two Parts, part I, London: T[homas] Cadell, […], published 1821, →OCLC, pages xxviii and xxix:
text: Skew and crest: this phrase, which occurs in the specifications for the repairs at the Tower of London, (23 H. VIII.,) plainly describes the common coping of a wall which consists of a sloping or skew surface surmounted by a roll moulding by way of crest; sometimes there are two skews, separated by a set-off.
ref: 1850, [John Henry Parker], “Skew and crest”, in A Glossary of Terms Used in Grecian, Roman, Italian, and Gothic Architecture, 5th edition, volume I (Text), Oxford, Oxfordshire: John Henry Parker; London: David Bogue, […], →OCLC, page 429:
topics: architecture
glosses: One of the stones placed over the end of a gable, or forming the coping of a gable.