Pargeted

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. Covered with a layer of plaster or decorative plasterwork applied to the surface of a wall or building
2. Finished with a coat of mortar or ornamental plaster, often with patterns pressed or drawn into the surface
3. Having had a rendering of plaster spread over masonry or timber, sometimes decorated with raised designs

Etymology: "Pargeted" is the past tense and past participle of "parget", a verb meaning to coat a wall with plaster or to decorate its surface with ornamental plasterwork. The verb came into Middle English as "pargetten", borrowed from Old French "pargeter" or "parjeter", which meant "to throw about." The Old French word combined the intensive prefix "par-", from Latin "per-", with "jeter", "to throw", itself descended from Latin "iactare", a frequentative of "iacere". So the core image is of flinging material onto a surface, which is exactly what plastering a wall involves. The idea of throwing soft material at a wall survives in the word's older senses, where it described spreading plaster over a building. Over time it came to mean the decorative form of that work, the raised patterns and motifs pressed into lime plaster on timber-framed houses. Because the same word also describes the act of covering a surface, "pargeted" can describe either a plain coat of plaster or an elaborately worked one.

Synonyms: plastered, stuccoed, rendered