WAINSCOT  , properly a

superior quality of oak, used for fine panel work, hence such panel-work as used for the lining or covering of the interior walls of an apartment . The word appears to be Dutch and came into use in English in the 16th century, and occurs in lists of imported timber . The Dutch word wagenschot, adapted in English as waynskott, weynskott (Hakluyt, Voyages, i . 173, has " boords called waghenscot "), was applied to the best kind of oak, well-grained, not liable to warp and free frcm knots . The form shows that it was, in popular etymology, formed from wagen (i.e. wain, wagon) and schot, a term which has a large number of meanings, such as shot, cast, partition, an enclosure of boards, cf . " sheet," and was applied to the fine wood panelling used in coach-building . This is, however, doubted, and relations have been suggested with Dutch weeg, wall, cognate with 0 . Eng. wah, wall, or with M . Dutch waeghe, Ger . Wage, wave, the reference being to the grain of the wood when cut . The term " wainscot " is sometimes wrongly applied to a " dado," the lining, whether of paper, paint or wooden panelling, of the lower portion of the walls of a room . A " dado " (Ital. dada, die, cube; Lat. datum, something given, a die for casting lots; cf .

O . Fr. del, mod. de, Eng . " die ") meant originally the

plane-faced cube on the base of a pedestal between the mouldings of the baseand the cornice, hence the flat surface between the plinth and the capping of the wooden lining of the lower part of a wall, representing a continuous pedestal .