A.Word.A.Day -- breastsummer

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breastsummer

(BRES-sum-uhr, BREST-, BRES-e-muhr)

noun: A horizontal beam supporting a wall over a large opening, such as a shop window.

[From breast (in architecture, part of a wall between a window and the floor) + Old French somier (packhorse, beam), from Latin sagma (packsaddle).]

"Breakfast-room has inglenook fireplace with breastsummer beam over window seat."
Alexander Garrett; Room for Improvement; The Daily Telegraph (London, UK); Jan 8, 2000.

X-Bonus

Pray, v. To ask the laws of the universe to be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy. -Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), [The Devil's Dictionary, 1906]

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