Pavilion

This article is about the structure. For other uses, see Pavilion (disambiguation).
A marble pavilion, Red Fort, Delhi

In architecture, pavilion has several meanings;

  • It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure.[1] In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia, there may be pavilions that are either freestanding or connected by covered walkways, as in the Forbidden City (Chinese pavilions), Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, and in Mughal buildings like the Red Fort.
  • As part of a large palace, pavilions may be symmetrically placed building blocks that flank (appear to join) a main building block or the outer ends of wings extending from both sides of a central building block, the corps de logis. Such configurations provide an emphatic visual termination to the composition of a large building, akin to bookends.

The word is from French pavillon (Old French paveillon) and it meant a small palace,[2] from Latin papilionem (accusative of papilio). In Late Latin and Old French, it meant both ‘butterfly’ and ‘tent’, because the canvas of a tent resembled a butterfly's spread wings.[3][4]

The word is from the early 13c., paviloun, "large, stately tent raised on posts and used as a movable habitation," from Old French paveillon "large tent; butterfly" (12c.), from Latin papilionem (nominative papilio) "butterfly, moth," in Medieval Latin "tent" (see papillon); the type of tent was so called on its resemblance to wings. Meaning "open building in a park, etc., used for shelter or entertainment" is attested from 1680s. Sense of "small or moderate-sized building, isolated from but dependent on a larger or principal building" (as in a hospital) is by 1858.[5]

  1. ^ "Pavilion | Architecture". Encyclopædia Britannica. 9 May 2024.
  2. ^ "The Ultimate Guide To Pavilion And Their Materials". Egy Gazebo. 17 September 2022.
  3. ^ Mitchell, James (1908). Significant Etymology. William Blackwood & Sons. p. 201. The Latin word papilio signified originally a butterfly, but in late Latin, and even in Pliny and Tertullian, came to signify a tent, colours, or a flag. It came to signify this apparently from the flapping of the canvas, like a butterfly literally that which is spread out like the wings of a butterfly.
  4. ^ Baril, Agnès (2001). Robert de Boron, Merlin, roman du XIIIe siècle (in French). Ellipses. p. 120. ISBN 978-2-7298-0301-8. [Paveillon :] Attesté dès 1162 dans le roman de Floire et Blancheflor, ce substantif masculin est le produit du mot lat. papilionem, accusatif de papilio, -onis : papillon, puis tente en latin tardif par une métaphore bien compréhensible et attestée dès le 6e siècle. En a.f. le paveillon désignait : une papillon; une tente conique; une tonnelle (avec également des acceptions ponctuelles et accessoires : filet à perdrix, petite monnaie, le sein d'une mère, même).
    [≈ Paveillon is attested in a 1162 novel [...]. This masculine noun is from the Latin papilionem [...], meaning "butterfly", then in Late Latin "tent", an easy-to-grasp metaphor from the 6th century. In Old French, paveillon meant "butterfly", "conical tent", "funnel trap / tunnel net [to hunt partridges]" (with the occasional and secondary meanings of "partridge net" (= tonnelle), "loose change", and even "mother's breast").]
  5. ^ "pavilion | Etymology, origin and meaning of pavilion by etymonline". www.etymonline.com. Retrieved 2023-06-13.