A Dictionary of Landscape
A Dictionary of Landscape: A Dictionary of Terms Used in the Description of the World's Land Surfaces
By George A. Goulty
Published by Avebury Technical, 1991.
This is a 6" by 9" clothbound book running to 309 pages plus a two page preface. It is printed using a monospaced typewriter font, in the way short-run specialty academic books were often published before the personal computing revolution.
The preface says, "The purpose of this dictionary [...] is to give definitions of terms that are important to all those concerned or interested with (sic) the land surface of this planet. It is a dictionary of technical terms written partly for specialists, but more particularly for the technically minded person and for students." The book includes definitions of terms relating to landscape that come from aboriculture, agriculture, architecture, biology, building construction, forestry, geology, geography, horticulture, urban planning, and many other fields.
For a sense of what is included, here is a list of the first fifteen entries in the "W" sequence:
Definitions are given usually in a few lines of easy-to-understand and sometimes entertaining text. There is attention to words that come from an American context, but the book is basically British.
Here are a few sample definitions:
INTROVERT GARDEN A garden design that ignores or screens everything beyond the boundary of the garden, and concentrates on creating features of visual interest within the site. Opposite to extravert garden.
HERMITAGE The habitation of a hermit; a solitary dwelling place for meditation. It became fashionable in Britain in the 18th century to build hermitages as a garden feature of interest; but it was difficult to find sufficient hermits to occupy them. Some of the best known hermitages were at Stowe, Buckinghamshire; Painshill, Surrey; and Stourhead in Wiltshire, England.
DUMPLING The soil remaining in the centre of an open excavation which is commenced by the sinking of a trench around the site. The dumpling is removed later.
LIDO A beach of sand or silt in front of a shore lagoon. The best known example is the lido which protects the lagoon at Venice. This has been converted into a famous bathing beach, so that the word lido has now come to mean a bathing beach; even at fresh water and artificial lake resorts.
This is a handy book if you're studying geography or landscape architecture and can compensate for the British perspective.
By George A. Goulty
Published by Avebury Technical, 1991.
This is a 6" by 9" clothbound book running to 309 pages plus a two page preface. It is printed using a monospaced typewriter font, in the way short-run specialty academic books were often published before the personal computing revolution.
The preface says, "The purpose of this dictionary [...] is to give definitions of terms that are important to all those concerned or interested with (sic) the land surface of this planet. It is a dictionary of technical terms written partly for specialists, but more particularly for the technically minded person and for students." The book includes definitions of terms relating to landscape that come from aboriculture, agriculture, architecture, biology, building construction, forestry, geology, geography, horticulture, urban planning, and many other fields.
For a sense of what is included, here is a list of the first fifteen entries in the "W" sequence:
- WADI
- WAKE-DUNE
- WALDHUFENDORF
- WALDSTERBEN
- WALLACE'S LINE
- WALTHAM CHASE MEADOW, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND
- WANING SLOPES
- WAPENTAKE
- WARD
- WARPING
- WARPLAND, WARPLANDS
- WARREN
- WASH
- WASHLAND
- WASTE, WASTELAND
Definitions are given usually in a few lines of easy-to-understand and sometimes entertaining text. There is attention to words that come from an American context, but the book is basically British.
Here are a few sample definitions:
INTROVERT GARDEN A garden design that ignores or screens everything beyond the boundary of the garden, and concentrates on creating features of visual interest within the site. Opposite to extravert garden.
HERMITAGE The habitation of a hermit; a solitary dwelling place for meditation. It became fashionable in Britain in the 18th century to build hermitages as a garden feature of interest; but it was difficult to find sufficient hermits to occupy them. Some of the best known hermitages were at Stowe, Buckinghamshire; Painshill, Surrey; and Stourhead in Wiltshire, England.
DUMPLING The soil remaining in the centre of an open excavation which is commenced by the sinking of a trench around the site. The dumpling is removed later.
LIDO A beach of sand or silt in front of a shore lagoon. The best known example is the lido which protects the lagoon at Venice. This has been converted into a famous bathing beach, so that the word lido has now come to mean a bathing beach; even at fresh water and artificial lake resorts.
This is a handy book if you're studying geography or landscape architecture and can compensate for the British perspective.