machicolation
/məˌt͡ʃɪkəˈleɪʃən/
Etymology
From Late Latin machicol(amentum) (“machicolation”) + -ation (suffix indicating an action or process). Machicolamentum may be derived from Old French macher (“to chew; to crush”) (modern French mâcher) + col (“neck”) + Latin -mentum (suffix indicating an instrument or medium, or the result of something). The English word is cognate with Middle English machecolled (“having machicolations”), machecolling (“act of constructing machicolation; the openings making up the machicolation”), Middle French machecoleis (modern French mâchicoulis (“machicolation”)), Latin machecollum (“machicolation”), Occitan machacol.
machicolation means an opening between corbels that support a projecting parapet, or in the floor of a gallery or the roof of a portal, of a fortified building from which missiles can be shot or heated items dropped upon assailants attacking the base of the walls. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.
machicolation is pronounced /məˌt͡ʃɪkəˈleɪʃən/.
Why “machicolation” is a great word
MACHICOLATION — [Noun] An opening in the floor of a projecting parapet or gallery of a fortified structure, through which missiles could be dropped on attackers below. From Late Latin *machicolamentum* (itself possibly from Old French *macher*, "to crush," + *col*, "neck," from Latin *collum*) + the English suffix *-ation*. First attested in English in 1773. Unlike a "crenel" (which is a notch in the battlement's upper edge for lateral fire) or a "bartizan" (which is a projecting turret for observation), a machicolation is defined by its vertical, fatal aperture. It is the shadowed gap in the stone gallery, the sudden rain of boiling pitch, and the cold geometry of calculated ruin—an architecture that speaks not of shelter, but of the precise moment when shelter must be brutally defended.
noun
- An opening between corbels that support a projecting parapet, or in the floor of a gallery or the roof of a portal, of a fortified building from which missiles can be shot or heated items dropped upon assailants attacking the base of the walls.“Leibourn Caſtle, Kent. A proſpect of the front of that caſtle. Over the gate, we are told, was a machicolation or contrivance, from whence, in caſe of a ſudden attack, great ſtones, boiling water, or melted lead, might be thrown down upon the aſſailants.”
- A projecting parapet with a series of such openings.“The main walls were carried to the top of the fourth story, where a capacious machicolation enclosed the tower, on which there is a parapet wall of great thickness, with arches: this was to protect the persons employed over the machicolations.”