Trusses

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A structural assembly made up of interconnected members designed to carry loads and provide support for roofs or bridges
2. A geometric arrangement of beams or rods that collectively sustain weight and offer stability in various constructions
3. A rigid structure made of connected elements to support and stabilize buildings or bridges ; a supportive belt or band worn to hold in or protect a hernia or other body parts

Etymology: The word "trusses" is the plural of "truss", which is also a verb, and the two come from different routes that happen to have landed on the same spelling. The noun traces back to Latin "tortus", the past participle of "torqueo", meaning "to twist". Its Vulgar Latin variant "torsus" passed into Old French as "trousse" and "torse", meaning a bundle or something twisted tight, and English borrowed it in Middle English. The idea of a tightly bound bundle explains the modern sense of a framework of beams: a truss holds its load by bracing and binding the pieces together. The verb is a separate borrowing. It comes from Old French "trousser", meaning to bundle up or tie, and entered Middle English as "trussen", with the sense of binding a load or packing something securely. The noun and the verb are therefore doublets only in the loose sense that both come from the same idea of tight binding, but they reached English by different paths.

Synonyms: supports, frameworks