PEDIMENT (equivalents, Gr. &

See also:

• ROS, SIR RICHARD (b. 1429)
• ROS, or DE

ros,

See also:

• LAT

Lat. fastigium, Fr. ponton)  , in classic architecture the triangular-shaped portion of the wall above the cornice which formed the termination of the roof behind it . The projecting mouldings of the cornice which surround it enclose the tympanum, which is sometimes decorated with sculpture . The pediment in classic architecture corresponds to the gable in Gothic architecture, where the roof is of loftier pitch . It was employed by the Greeks only as the front of the roof which covered the main building; the Romans, how-ever, adopted it as a decorative termination to a doorway, niche or window, and occasionally, in a row of windows or niches, alternated the triangular with a segmental pediment .. It was reserved for the Italian architects of the decadence to break the pediment in the centre, thus destroying its original purpose . The earliest English form of the word is pediment or peremint, probably a workman's corruption of " pyramid .