A torp is a type of croft emblematic of the Swedish countryside. It comes from the Old Norse þorp. In modern usage, it is the emblematic Swedish summer house, a small cottage painted Falu red and white, and evidence of the way in which urbanization came quite late to all of Scandinavia. Its characteristic falu röd colour is ubiquitous in Sweden and became popular due to the paint's affordability.
Sunday, May 7, 2023
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
Monday, January 9, 2023
hypocaust
A hypocaust (Latin: hypocaustum) is a system of central heating in a building that produces and circulates hot air below the floor of a room, and may also warm the walls with a series of pipes through which the hot air passes. This air can warm the upper floors as well. The word derives from the Ancient Greek hypo meaning "under" and caust-, meaning "burnt" (as in caustic). The earliest reference to such a system suggests that the temple of Ephesus in 350 BC was heated in this manner, although Vitruvius attributes its invention to Sergius Orata in c. 80 BC.
Monday, December 8, 2014
storey
A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). The plurals are storeys and stories, respectively.
The terms floor, level, or deck can also be used in this sense; except that one may use "ground floor" and "ground level" for the floor closer to what is considered the ground or street level, whereas "storey" is commonly used only for levels strictly above or below that level The words "storey" and "floor" also generally exclude levels of the building that have no roof, even if they are used by people—such as the terrace on the top roof of many buildings.
Monday, November 19, 2012
kremlin

A kremlin is a major fortified central complex found in historic Russian cities. This word is often used to refer to the best-known one, the Moscow Kremlin, or metonymically to the government that is based there. Outside Russia, the name Kremlin is sometimes mistakenly thought of as being Saint Basil's Cathedral because of its distinctive environment, although this is not a part of the Moscow Kremlin.
The name Kremlin (or Kreml) has been allocated to various Soviet Navy vessels during construction. In each case, the name was changed prior to commissioning. Vessels which have briefly carried this name included Admiral Kuznetsov and Ulyanovsk.
Russia's presidential administration is located in the Moscow Kremlin. During the Soviet era, the government of the USSR was located in that kremlin, but now the Russian government occupies a building outside it.
synanthrope
A synanthrope (from ancient Greek σύν sýn "together, with" and ἄνθρωπος ánthrōpos "man") is an organism that evolve...
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A canary trap is a method for exposing an information leak by giving different versions of a sensitive document to each of several suspec...
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A synanthrope (from ancient Greek σύν sýn "together, with" and ἄνθρωπος ánthrōpos "man") is an organism that evolve...
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A kouros (plural kouroi , Ancient Greek κοῦρος ) is the modern term given to those representations of male youths which first appear i...