Awnings

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of exterior construction that offers protection or shade from sun and rain while enhancing the aesthetic appeal of a building
2. A fabric or material structure affixed to the outside of a building, designed primarily for shielding spaces from weather conditions
3. A structure made of fabric stretched over a frame fixed outside buildings to provide shade and shelter from precipitation

Etymology: "Awnings" is the plural of "awning," and the singular has a surprisingly tangled ancestry. It is generally thought to come from Anglo-French "auvent," a shelter or projection, which is itself linked to "avant" ("before, in front"), so an awning is literally something that sits out in front. The English word was earlier spelled with variants such as "alwning" and "awnyng," and its origin is debated: some etymologists connect it to Old French "auvent" while others point to a possible link with the Latin "ante," meaning "before," through the same family of ideas. Originally an awning was a sail or canvas stretched over a ship's deck or a boat to keep off the sun, and the word carried that nautical sense for a long time before it came to mean the fixed fabric canopies over shop fronts and windows that are familiar today. That shift from a movable covering at sea to a permanent fixture on buildings is the part of the story that most clearly shows the word moving from one setting to another.

Synonyms: canopies, overhangs