compluvium

English

Borrowed from Latin compluvium.

compluvium (plural compluvia)

(architecture) A space left unroofed over the court of a dwelling in Ancient Rome, through which the rain fell into the impluvium or cistern.
- 1881, William Audsley, Popular Dictionary of Architecture and the Allied Arts: Aquila to Baptisterium:
  In the centre of the floor of the atrium a portion was sunk for the reception of rain water; this was termed the impluvium; and above it an opening of similar dimensions was left in the ceiling or roof, termed the compluvium.

FWOTD – 29 January 2014

From compluit (“it flows together, it rains upon”) +‎ -ium, from cum + pluit (“it rains”).

compluvium n (genitive compluviī or compluvī); second declension

A rectangular open space in the middle of a Roman house, which collected rain water falling on the surrounding roof and conducted it to a basin (impluvium) placed below.

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

“compluvium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
compluvium in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
compluvium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
“compluvium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
“compluvium”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin