vault

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to jump across or leap over an obstacle

   When we discovered there was no other way to get around the rock but over it, we decided to vault.

2. 2
   noun

   An arched masonry structure supporting and forming a ceiling, whether freestanding or forming part of a larger building.

   The decoration of the vault of Sainte-Chapelle was much brighter before its 19th-century restoration.

3. 3
   noun

   Anything resembling such a downward-facing concave structure, particularly the sky and caves.

   The stalactites held tightly to the cave's vault.

4. 4
   noun

   Any cellar or underground storeroom.

   To banish rats that haunt our vault.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Vault in both the architectural and leaping senses ultimately reflects the “roll” or “turn” sense of Latin volvere. The leaping sense, recorded from the mid-16th century, came through Old French volter, “to turn a horse” or “gambol”; the architectural sense, found in Middle English, refers to an arch springing upward to form a roof.

From Middle English vaute, vowte, from Old French volte (modern voûte), from Vulgar Latin *volta < *volvita or *volŭta, a regularization of Latin volūta (compare modern volute (“spire”)), the past participle of volvere (“roll, turn”). Cognate with Spanish vuelta (“turn”) and Portuguese volta ("turn"). Doublet of volute. Displaced native Old English hwealf.

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary