Keystone

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Keystone

Postby Dr. Goodword » Wed Mar 08, 2023 8:20 pm

• keystone •


Pronunciation: kee-ston • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. The wedge-shaped stone at the summit of a stone arch or vault that holds the other stones in place. 2. The critical part of something on which all the other parts depend.

Notes: My state, Pennsylvania, calls itself "the keystone state". It came by this nickname because its largest city, Philadelphia, is where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written and enacted.

In Play: This word may be used figuratively for the central piece of anything with pieces: "Tryon Makepeace gave the keystone speech at the conference on war strategies sponsored by the army." Keystone is also the name of a madcap, shambolic police force in silent movies of the 1920s: "Our boys looked more like the Keystone Kops than a baseball team today."

Word History: Today's Good Word is obviously a compound noun consisting of key + stone. In Middle English key was keie, from Old English cæg. The latter probably derives from PIE keu-k- "bent", since we find Sanskrit kuñcika "key" from the same root. If so, it is related to Irish cuar "curve", and Bulgarian and Serbian kuka "hook". Stone in Old English was stan, so it is cousin to Dutch steen, Swedish and Norwegian sten, and German Stein. All these words are descendants of PIE stai- "harden, press together", evidence of which we see in Sanskrit styayate "hardens", Greek stear "suet", Latin stiria "icicle", Russian stena "wall", Lithuanian stingti "to solidify, curdle", and Latvian stingt "to stiffen". (Now for a triple "thank-you" to Jeremy Busch, for his service as an editor of this series, his long-time activism in the Agora, and contributor of fascinating Good Words like today's.)
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Slava
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Re: Keystone

Postby Slava » Thu Mar 09, 2023 8:34 am

I just came across another definition of keystone: it's a voussoir, the main one that completes the vault, allowing all the other voussoirs to stick together.

Weirdly enough, voussoir is related to wallow. Fun.
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Re: Keystone

Postby Debbymoge » Thu Mar 09, 2023 4:55 pm

Slava, HOW do you do that?
Where do you find these???
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Slava
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Re: Keystone

Postby Slava » Thu Mar 09, 2023 8:00 pm

I use this strange thing called a dictionary, along with a generous dose of what is perhaps my favorite word, serendipity. I was looking up a word, saw that keystone was on the opposite page and looked at it. Voila, bonjour voussoir! Of course, I had to look that one up, too, and learned that it is a wedge-shaped stone that goes into the makeup of the arch of a vault. Then a dash over to an etymology site on the good 'ol internot, and I've got the turning, twisting root that lets us wallow in wondrous words.
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Re: Keystone

Postby bbeeton » Fri Mar 10, 2023 1:11 pm

Okay, Slava. Now we've got voissoir to stabilize a dome, like a keystone stabilizes an arch.

What if the dome is topped with an oculus? Is there a particular final component that keeps the whole construct from crumbling? The Romans managed with the Pantheon, although it can be said that they cheated by using concrete.


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