awning
(ˈɔːnɪŋ)
Also (7 yawning), 8 auning.
[A word of obscure origin, apparently at first only in nautical use. Probably to be referred (as by Wedgwood) to Fr. auvent ‘a penthouse of cloth, etc. before a shop window, etc.’ Cotgr., early plurals in Littré auvens, auvans, med.L. auvanna, auvannus, whence *auvan, *auwn, awn; the termination is of course Eng. -ing. E. Müller refers it to Low German havenung, f. haven harbour, in sense of ‘a shelter from wind and weather’; Skeat compares ‘Pers. áwan, áwang, anything suspended, awangān hanging, awnang a clothes-line’; but neither of these is applied in its own language to an awning; in particular an oriental origin seems incompatible with the history. F. auvent is itself of doubtful etymol. See Diez, Littré, Du Cange.]
1. A roof-like covering of canvas or similar material, used as a shelter from sun, rain, etc.; esp. above the deck of a vessel.
| 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia in Harper's Mag. Apr. (1884) 712/1 Wee did hang an awning (which is an old saile) to..trees to shadow us from the Sunne. 1626 ― Accid. Yng. Seamen 30 A trar-pawling or yawning. 1627 ― Seaman's Gram. vi. 27 An Awning..is but the bots saile..brought ouer the yard and stay, and boumed out with the boat hooke. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Orange tree, An Awning of Bass-Mats..will..keep the Sun and Winds from the Orange-Trees. 1877 A. B. Edwards Up Nile vi. 135 Too hot on deck without the awning. |
2. transf. a. Naut. That part of the poop-deck which is continued forward beyond the bulk-head of the cabin; hence awning-deck(ed. b. gen. A shelter.
| 1764 Veitch in Phil. Trans. LIV. 292 The auning, which is a projection of the deck of the cabin to shelter from the sun or rain. 1826 H. N. Coleridge West Indies 206 An alley of the graceful bamboo..which might serve for a temporary awning. 1869 E. J. Reed Ship Build. xv. 294 These ships..have a complete spar deck..and an awning-deck above this. 1879 H. F. Craggs in Daily News 19 Apr. 3/3 All ocean steamers should be..awning-decked fore and aft. |
Hence awninged (ˈɔːnɪŋd), ppl. a. [see -ed2], furnished with an awning; (with awninged off cf. railed off). ˈawningless a., without awning.
| 1881 E. Coxon Basil Pl. I. 78 Before the awninged door. 1881 Nicholson Sword to Share xxiv. 174 A small portion—over the propeller—is awninged off. 1865 M. E. Braddon Only a Clod xxxiii. 267 In an awningless boat under a broiling sun. |