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noun

Atrium n. (pl. atria)

(Arch.)

(a)

A square hall lighted from above, into which rooms open at one or more levels.

(b)

An open court with a porch or gallery around three or more sides; especially at the entrance of a basilica or other church. The name was extended in the Middle Ages to the open churchyard or cemetery.

(Anat.) The main part of either auricle of the heart as distinct from the auricular appendix. Also, the whole articular portion of the heart.

(Zool.) A cavity in ascidians into which the intestine and generative ducts open, and which also receives the water from the gills. See Ascidioidea.

(Anat.) A cavity, entrance, or passage; as, the atrium, or atrial cavity, in the body wall of the amphioxus; an atrium of the infundibula of the lungs, etc.

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Etymology of 'Atrium'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Atrium" Quotes from Famous Books

... The outward distinction of the former was the Jus Imaginum. These Imagines were figures with painted masks of wax, representing the ancestors who had held any of the curule magistracies. They were placed in cases in the atrium or reception-hall of the house, and were carried in the funeral procession of a member of the family. Any one who first obtained a curule magistracy became the founder of the nobility of his family. Such a person was himself neither a Nobilis ...

— A Smaller History of Rome • William Smith and Eugene Lawrence

... semper hac verba: Ou mam Hactani: hoc est, Deus tu nosti; secundum quod quidem eorum interpretatus est mihi. Et toties expectant remunerationem a Deo, quoties hoc dicendo memoratur Dei. Circa templum suum semper faciunt pulchrum atrium, quod bene includunt muro: et ad meridiem faciunt portam magnam, in qua sedent ad colloquendum. Et super illam portam erigunt perticam longam, qua emineat si possint, super totam villam. Et per illam perticam ...

— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries - Vol. II • Richard Hakluyt

... elsewhere. Not even the basilicas and mosaics of Rome, nor those of Palermo and Monreale, are equal for historical interest to those of Ravenna. Yet there is not one single church which remains entirely unaltered and unspoiled. The imagination has to supply the atrium or outer portico from one building, the vaulted baptistery with its marble font from another, the pulpits and ambones from a third the tribune from a fourth, the round brick bell-tower from a fifth, and then to cover all the concave roofs ...

— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Second Series • John Addington Symonds

... Pistoja. Vitoni's church of the Umilta in the latter city is a pure example of conscientious neo-Roman architecture. It consists of a large octagon surmounted by a dome and preceded by a lofty vaulted atrium or vestibule. The single round arch of this vestibule repeats the testudo of a Roman bath, and the decorative details are accurately reproduced from similar monuments. Unfortunately, Giorgio Vasari, who was employed to finish the cupola, spoiled its effect by raising ...

— Renaissance in Italy Vol. 3 - The Fine Arts • John Addington Symonds

... her face away from Antipas, seemed to be weeping silently. After a few moments she dried her eyes, declared that she would dream no more, and that she was, in reality, perfectly happy. She reminded Antipas of their former long delightful interviews in the atrium; their meetings at the baths; their walks along the Sacred Way, and the sweet evening rendezvous at the villa, among the flowery groves, listening to the murmur of splashing fountains, within sight of the Roman Campagna. Her glances were as tender as in former days; she drew near to him, ...

— Herodias • Gustave Flaubert

Words linked to "Atrium" : atrium dextrum, atrial, left atrium, chamber, courtyard, atrium sinistrum, oblique vein of the left atrium, right atrium, right atrium of the heart, left atrium of the heart, atrium cordis, court