propylaeum

prop·y·lae·um

(prŏp′ə-lē′əm, prō′pə-)

n. pl. prop·y·lae·a (-lē′ə)

An entrance or vestibule to a temple or group of buildings. Also called propylon.

[Latin, from Greek propulaion : pro-, before; see pro-² + pulē, gate.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

propylaeum

(ˌprɒpɪˈliːəm) or

propylon

n, pl -laea (-ˈliːə) , -lons or -la

(Architecture) a portico, esp one that forms the entrance to a temple

[C18: via Latin from Greek propulaion before the gate, from pro-² + pulē gate]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

prop•y•lae•um

(ˌprɒp əˈli əm)

n., pl. -lae•a (-ˈli ə)

Often, propylaea. a vestibule or entrance to a temple area or other enclosure, esp. when elaborate or of architectural importance.

[1700–10; < Latin < Greek propýlaion gateway, n. use of neuter of propýlaios before the gate =pro- pro-² + pýl(ē) gate + -aios adj. suffix]

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References in periodicals archive ?

Structural engineers and archaeologists have dug trial pits to investigate the cause of subsidence affecting the massive sandstone Propylaeum at Chester Castle.

HISTORIC SITE REFURBISHED; WIRRAL Briefing

The new Folkwang Museum is most rhetorical in its subdued echoes of an artistic Acropolis: it raises classically proportioned pavilions on a low stone podium, approached up stairs or ramp and through a skinny steel propylaeum. But this raising-up is a matter of a few metres.

131 Museum Folkwang

He was quite insensitive to the 'built heritage'; we had not realised the extent of his roughness until the matter of the Euston Arch arose (it wasn't an arch, of course, but a rather splendid propylaeum).

Remembering Harold Macmillan

The first was the wickedly unnecessary demolition of the Doric propylaeum at Euston Station (described in this column, October 2007), closely followed by that of the Coal Exchange in the City of London, that extraordinary structure of both masonry and cast iron that Henry-Russell Hitchcock, in a telegram sent from the us, described as the 'Prime mid-century monument of iron and glass construction, not alone of Britain, but of World'.

Long journey's end: the revival of St Pancreas could never have happened without the Victorian society, which was founded 50 years ago

Rather, it was a Greek propylaeum: a ceremonial gateway, the largest ever built, modelled on the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens - only the finest gateway of the ancient world being judged symbolically appropriate for such an amazing achievement of the modern world as the first longdistance railway.

Don't close the gateway to our city; Readers have recently been discussing Sir John Betjeman's ill-fated campaign to save the Euston Arch. Chris Game, senior lecturer at the Insitut of Local Government Studies at the University of Birmingham, explains the full significance of its demolition

Because the republicanism of these writers derives from Machiavelli's Discourses and their liberalism from themes adumbrated by Hobbes, these two giants provide the propylaeum to the study and the sources for continuing reference.

Vickie B. Sullivan. Machiavelli, Hobbes and the Formation of a Liberal Republicanism in England

Three distinctive architectural elements were developed in ancient Egypt--the pyramid, the propylaeum or pylon, and the obelisk.

Views of ancient Egypt

When Euston Station was built as the terminus of the London & Birmingham Railway--the first great trunk railway line linking the capital with the provinces, engineered by Robert Stephenson--the directors decided to celebrate this triumph of Man over Nature by announcing it with a Doric propylaeum or gateway (not a triumphal arch).

Steam ahead: the proposed rebuilding of London's Euston station is an opportunity to atone for a great architectural crime

Kleihues has made Rationalist buildings that echo pre-War predecessors on each side of the propylaeum, but without quite descending into kitsch; Moore Ruble Yudell have made the huge US embassy now finishing in the south-west corner of the piazza in muted PoMo; Gunther Behnisch (with Manfred Sabatke and Werner Durth) proposed a new arts academy between the embassy and the Adlon on the south side of the square, but progress has been slow because of objections to its free, abstracted glass facade.