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WALL (O. Eng. weal, weall, Mid. Eng. ...

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 275 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WALL (O. Eng. weal, weall, See also:Mid. Eng. wal, wane, adapted from See also:Lat. vallum, rampart; the See also:original O. Eng. word for a wall was wag or tenth)  , a solid structure of See also:stone, See also:brick or other material, used as a defensive, protecting, enclosing or dividing fence, or as the enclosing and supporting sides of a See also:building, See also:house or See also:room . The See also:Roman vellum was an See also:earth rampart with stakes or palisades (vallus, stake; Gr. iXos, See also:nail) and the Old See also:English word was particularly applied to such earth walls; for the remains of the Roman walls in See also:Britain see BRITAIN . The word, however, was also applied to stone defensive walls, for which the Latin word was murus . The See also:history of the See also:wall as .a means of See also:defence will be found in the See also:article FORTIFICATION AND SIEGECRAFT, the architectural and constructional See also:side under the headings See also:ARCHITECTURE, See also:MASONRY and See also:BRICKWORK . In See also:anatomy and See also:zoology the See also:term " wall," and also the Latin term paries, is used for an investing or enclosing structure, as in " See also:cell-walls," walls of the See also:abdomen, &c . In the days when footpaths were narrow and See also:ill-paved or non-existent in, the streets of towns and when the gutters were often overflowing with See also:water and filth, the side nearest to the wall of the bordering houses was safest and cleanest, and hence to walk on that side was a See also:privilege, hence the expressions " to take " or " to give the wall." The term " wall-See also:rib " is given in architecture to a See also:half-rib bedded in the wall, to carry the See also:web or See also:shell of the vault . In Roman and in See also:early Romanesque See also:work the web was laid on the See also:top of the stone courses of the wall, which had been cut to the arched See also:form, but as this was often irregularly done, and as sometimes the courses had sunk owing to the drying of the See also:mortar, it was found better to provide an See also:independent rib to carry the web; half of this rib was sunk in the wall and the other half moulded like the transverse and See also:diagonal ribs, so that if the wall sank, or if it had to be taken down from any cause, the vault would still retain its position . The word " wall See also:eye " or " wall-eyed " is applied to a See also:condition of the eye, particularly of a See also:horse, in which there is a large amount of See also:white showing or there is See also:absence of See also:colour in the See also:iris, or there is leucoma of the cornea . It is also applied to the white staring eyes of certain fishes . The word has no connexion with " wall " as above, but is from the Icelandic vagleygr, vagl, a See also:beam, See also:sty in the eye, and eygr, eyed .

End of Article: WALL (O. Eng. weal, weall, Mid. Eng. wal, wane, adapted from Lat. vallum, rampart; the original O. Eng. word for a wall was wag or tenth)
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RICHARD WALL (1694-1778)

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