ashlar

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a block of building stone cut or worked into a regular rectangular shape

   Each ashlar was numbered before being lifted into the wall.

2. 2
   noun

   masonry made from accurately cut stones laid in even courses with narrow joints

   The courthouse facade is built of pale limestone ashlar.

From Middle English assheler and related forms through Old French and Medieval Latin words for a shaped support or small plank. In English building practice it came to denote squared, dressed stone and then the regular masonry constructed from such blocks.

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