Doorhead

/ˈdɔːrhed/ noun

Definition

In architecture, the top or header of a doorway; the horizontal member spanning the top of a door opening (also called a lintel).

Etymology

From 'door' + 'head' (Old English 'heafod'). Doorhead is a logical compound using 'head' to describe the uppermost part of the door structure, like 'head' of a river.

Kelly Says

The 'head' of anything is its top—doorhead, watershed, masthead—and using body parts for architecture shows how older languages thought spatially through the human body as the original reference frame.

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