awning

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a sheet of canvas or other material extended over a window, doorway, deck, or outdoor area to provide shelter from sun or rain

   They lowered the awning over the patio when the afternoon sun became intense.

Attested in early seventeenth-century English, first in nautical use. Its origin is uncertain, but it is probably related to Middle French auvent or auvans, 'a sloping roof or eaves,' whose forms were reshaped in English. The word expanded from coverings on ships to fabric shelters over buildings and outdoor spaces.

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