Gazebos canopy belong to a variety of garden structures with similar functions, that include pagodas, pavilions, kiosks, belvederes, follies, alambras, pergolas, and more. As the etymologies of those names suggest, such structures were (and are) quite popular in warm and sunny climates. They are well-attested in the literature of China, Persia, and many other classical civlizations, going back to several millennia. Examples of such structures are the garden houses at Montacute House.

The word gazebo was first used by British architects William and John Halfpenny in their book Rural Architecture in the Chinese Taste (1750). Plate 55 of the book, titled “Elevation of a Chinese Gazebo” shows “[…] a Chinese Tower or Gazebo, situated on a Rock, and raised to a considerable Heighth, and a Gallery round it to render the Prospect more compleat”.

The origin of the word is unknown, and has no cognates in other European languages. Several false etymologies have been proposed, such as the French expression Que c’est beau (”How beautiful”) and the Macaronic Latin gazebo (”I shall gaze”). L. L. Bacon proposed a derivation from Casbah, a Muslim quarter around the citadel in Algiers[1]. More recently, W. Sayers proposed that the name comes from Hispano-Arabic qushaybah, attested in a poem by Cordoban poet Ibn Quzman (d. 1160)

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 12:31 am and is filed under Art Design, Building, Gazebo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.