Meanings
plural contignations
- archaicThe act or process of framing or slotting together, or uniting, like beams in a fabric.
They were easily led to consider the flames that were consuming France, not as a warning to protect their own buildings (which were without any party wall, and linked by a contignation into the edifice of France,) but as an happy occasion […]
1796, Edmund Burke, letter on the genius and character of the French Revolution as it regards other nations - archaicarchitectureA framework or fabric, such as of beams.
[W]hen vvee ſpeake of the Intercolumniation or diſtance, vvhich is due to each Order, vve meane in a Dorique, Ionicall, Corinthian Porch, or Cloiſter, or the like of one Contignation, and not in Storied buildings.
1624, Henry Wotton, “The Seate, and the Worke”, in The Elements of Architecture, […], London: […] Iohn Bill, →OCLC, I. part, pages 39–40
Origin
- Latincontignātiō
- Englishcontignation
From Latin contignātiō, from contignō (“to join with beams”), from con- + tignum (“beam”).
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
contignation. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/contignation
“contignation.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/contignation. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “contignation,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/contignation.
Source: contignation on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.