Ashlar

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈæʃlə/

Definitions

1. A building material that is precisely cut into rectangular blocks for use in masonry work is described as finely finished stone used in construction projects and signifies high-quality stone for walls and structures
2. A rectangular stone block carefully shaped and smoothed to fit neatly in building walls
3. A piece of stone cut to uniform size and finish for use in precise architectural construction

Etymology: The most surprising fact is that "ashlar" once named a wooden plank, not a stone. Old French "esselier" meant a wooden support or traverse beam, and the word traces back through Medieval Latin "ascelāris" and "assellāris", diminutive forms of the early word for plank, "ais". Those trace further to Latin "axilla", literally "little plank", a diminutive of "axis", which could mean either an axle or a board. English borrowed the word in Middle English as "assheler" and "acheler", with the stone sense developing later. The shift from timber to masonry is the core of the story: a flat, squared piece of wood became a flat, squared piece of dressed stone. The "-ar" ending in the Latin chain is the adjective-forming suffix "-āris", so the word's ancestry is built from a diminutive of a diminutive, layered over centuries of Old French and Medieval Latin usage.

Synonyms: stone, block