cupola

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian cupola, from Latin cūpula (“little tub”); from Latin cūpa, cuppa (“cup”); named for its resemblance to a cup turned over.

Pronunciation

(UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈkjuːpələ/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
(US) IPA^(key): /ˈkupələ/
(US, dialectal) IPA^(key): /ˈkjupəloʊ/ (see cupalo)

Noun

cupola (plural cupolas or cupolae)

(architecture) A dome-shaped ornamental structure located on top of a larger roof or dome.
- 1886, Robert Louis Stephenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde:
  the light falling dimly through the foggy cupola.
- 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 101:
  The stations on the City & South London were small but pretty, with cupolas to accommodate the winding gear of the small and claustrophobic hydraulic lifts.
(military, railroad) A small turret, usually on a hatch of an armoured fighting vehicle.
(geology) An upward-projecting mass of plutonic rock extending from a larger batholith.
(geometry) A solid formed by joining two polygons, one (the base) with twice as many edges as the other, by an alternating band of isosceles triangles and rectangles.
A type of furnace used for smelting.
- 2008, Matthew Stein, When Technology Fails, →ISBN:
  The cupola has a small cylindrical chimney-like bore that is lined with a refractory material.
- 2009, S.K. Garg, Comprehensive Workshop Technology, →ISBN, page 260:
  Cast iron produced in a cupola possesses the following advantages : The cost of melting is low. The control of chemical composition is better. Temperature control is easier. Molten metals can be tapped from the cupola at regular intervals.
(anatomy) A small cap over a structure that is shaped like a dome or inverted cup.
the posterior cupola of the cartilaginous nasal capsule
- 1937, Sir Gavin De Beer, The Development of the Vertebrate Skull, page 180:
  From each anterior cupola there projects forwards the processus prenasalis lateralis inferior.
- 2015, Charles E. Smith, Trauma Anesthesia, →ISBN, page 85:
  The cupola of the lung is mostly medial and posterior to the vein as it begins to course deeper into the thorax (Fig. 5.7).
(railways, Canada, dated) a small viewing window in the top of the caboose for looking over the train, or the part of the caboose where one looks through this window.