peristyle means A colonnade surrounding a courtyard, temple, etc., or the yard enclosed by such columns. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 83 out of 100.
peristyle is pronounced /ˈpɛɹɪstaɪl/.
Why “peristyle” is a great word
PERISTYLE — [Noun] A colonnade surrounding a courtyard, temple, or other open space, or the space so enclosed. From French péristyle, from Latin peristȳlum, from Greek περίστυλον (perístulon), from περι- (peri-, "around") + στῦλος (stûlos, "pillar, column"). First attested in English circa 1610. Unlike a "colonnade" (a general row of columns, which may be freestanding) or a "portico" (a projecting entrance porch), a peristyle is an encompassing architectural embrace. It is the rhythmic procession of pillars framing a sun-drenched Roman impluvium, the shaded ambulatory for a philosopher's measured pacing, and the precise, geometric order holding open a square of sky—a monument not to mass, but to the dignified void it was built to frame.
Etymology
From French péristyle, from Classical Latin peristȳlum, from περίστυλον (perístulon), from περι- (peri-, “around”) + στῦλος (stûlos, “pillar”). peri- + -style.
noun
- A colonnade surrounding a courtyard, temple, etc., or the yard enclosed by such columns.“One cannot, for example, see the Temple of Æsculapius as one stands in the fine open courtyard as it was intended one should do; the interstices on that side of the peristyle have been blocked by Venetian Gothic buildings.”
- A porch surrounded by columns.
- A sacred roofed courtyard with a central pillar (the potomitan), used as a space for voodoo ceremonies, either alone or as an adjunct to an enclosed temple or altar-room.“The peristyle is a roofed structure, open at the sides, in which most of the ceremonials and dances take place.”