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Wiktionary

finial

English

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WOTD – 2 October 2023

Etymology

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An 1856 illustration by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc of a finial (sense 1) at the peak of a gable.
 
The finial (sense 1) of the dome of the Taj Mahal in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India.
 
A finial (sense 2) on the newel post of a staircase.

From Late Middle English finial (“(adjective) final; (noun) ornament at the upper extremity of a pinnacle, spire, etc.”) [and other forms],[1] a variant of final (“pertaining to the close or end of something, last, final”),[2][3] from Old French final (“last, final; definitive”) (modern French final), from Latin fīnālis (“of or pertaining to the end of something, final; of or pertaining to boundaries”), from fīnis (“a border; an end”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“to split”) or *dʰeygʷ- (“to set up; to stick”)) + -ālis (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining’ to forming adjectives).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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finial (plural finials)

  2. (architecture) Especially in Gothic architecture: an ornament, often in the form of a bunch or knot of foliage, on the peak of the gable of a roof, a pediment, a pinnacle, etc.
    Coordinate term: fleuron
  4. (by extension) Any decorative fitting on the corner, end, or top of an object such as a canopy, a fencepost, a flagpole, a curtain rod, or the newel post of a staircase.
    • 1947 January–February, “Notes and News: An Unusual Signal at Mottisfont, S.R.”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 55:
      The finial is also of timber (probably oak) and is of the rather elaborate type, originally favoured by the London & South Western Railway for its timber masts.
    • 1988, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 7, in The Swimming-Pool Library, London: Vintage, published 1998, →ISBN, page 142:
      It was a narrow, gravelled island we had to lie on, guarded by glazed brick chimneys and, running along the sides, a prickly little gothic fence of iron finials and terracotta quatrefoils.
    • 1994 January 12, David Karp, “Once considered exotic, some fruits become family”, in The New York Times‎[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-10-30:
      Mark Twain called the cherimoya "deliciousness itself," though others have described this heart-shaped, fist-sized fruit with pale-green leathery skin as "reptilian," like a "fossil artichoke" or "the finial for a giant four-poster bed."
    • 2005, David Foster Wallace, “The View from Mrs. Thompson’s”, in Consider the Lobster and Other Essays, New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, published 2006, →ISBN, page 129:
      He says there's a very particular etiquette to having your flag at half-mast: you're supposed to first run it all the way up to the finial at the top and then bring it halfway down.
    • 2021 September 22, “A Signal Survivor from the 1800s”, in Rail, number 940, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 82:
      For several years, the finial was missing, and its replica replacement will save the wooden post from rotting.
  5. (figurative, also attributive) The completion or end of something.

Hyponyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “finiāl, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “fīnāl, -all, -el, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  3. ^ “finial, adj. and n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; compare “finial, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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