If you’re an architect or builder, you probably know these words. I’m not, and I didn’t. It’s a record number of new words in one sentence.
Lintel – a horizontal architectural member spanning and usually carrying the load above an opening
Arabesque – an ornament or style that employs flower, foliage, or fruit and sometimes animal and figural outlines to produce an intricate pattern of interlaced lines
Crowstep – any of a series of steps at the top of a gable wall
Corbel – an architectural member that projects from within a wall and supports a weight especiallyĀ :Ā one that is stepped upward and outward from a vertical surface
Crocket – an ornament usually in the form of curved and bent foliage used on the edge of a gable or spire
And here is the sentence, still in The Orchard Keeper:
“He was still standing on the sidewalk and now he saw the city, steamed and weaving in heat, and rising above the new facings of glass and tile the bare outlandish buildings, towering columns of brick adorned with fantastic motley; arches, lintels, fluted and arabesque, flowered columns and crowstepped gables, bay windows over corbels carved in shapes of feet, heads of nameless animals, Pompeian figuresā¦ here and there, gargoyled and crocketed, wreathed dates commemorating the perpetration of the structure.”
Jonas David 