pavilion

From Middle English pavilloun, from Anglo-Norman pavilloun, from Latin pāpiliōnem, form of pāpiliō (“butterfly, moth”) (due to resemblance of tent to a butterfly’s wings), of unknown origin.[1] Doublet of papillon.

Cognate to French pavillon (“pavilion”) and papillon (“butterfly”), and similar terms in other Romance languages.

• IPA^(key): /pəˈvɪljən/

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• Rhymes: -ɪljən

pavilion (plural pavilions)

Three pavilions (silver) as charges on a heraldic shield, and one pavilion (red and gold striped) atop the mantling .

1. An ornate tent.
2. A light roofed structure used as a shelter in a public place.
3. A structure, sometimes temporary, erected to house exhibits at a fair, etc.
4. (cricket) The building where the players change clothes, wait to bat, and eat their meals.
5. A detached or semi-detached building at a hospital or other building complex.
6. The lower surface of a brilliant-cut gemstone, lying between the girdle and collet.
7. (anatomy) The cartiliginous part of the outer ear; auricle.
8. (anatomy) The fimbriated extremity of the Fallopian tube.
9. (military) A flag, ensign, or banner.
   1. A flag or ensign carried at the gaff of the mizzenmast.
10. (heraldry) An ornate tent, used either as a charge or bearing, or surrounding a shield as or atop the mantling.
11. A covering; a canopy; figuratively, the sky.
    • 1819 or 1820 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Cloud”, in Prometheus Unbound […], London: C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier […], published 1820, →OCLC, stanza 6, page 200:

      For after the rain when with never a stain, / The pavilion of heaven is bare, […]

• (part of ear): auricle, pinna

• pavilion roof

• papillon

pavilion (third-person singular simple present pavilions, present participle pavilioning, simple past and past participle pavilioned)

1. (transitive) To furnish with a pavilion.
2. (transitive) To put inside a pavilion.
3. (transitive, figuratively) To enclose or surround (after Robert Grant's hymn line "pavilioned in splendour").

Borrowed from French pavillon or German Pavillon.

pavilion n (plural pavilioane)

1. pavilion, gazebo