Other forms: buttresses, buttressed, buttressing
A buttress is a stone support built against a wall to stop it spreading. A stone buttress, flying buttress, buttress the wall.
A flying buttress carries the thrust across an open arch to a pier standing away from the wall, which is what let Gothic cathedrals have walls of glass rather than stone. As a verb, to buttress an argument is to support it. Note that the French means a supporting arc.
1nounbuttressA support built against a wall to stop it spreading.
“Stone buttresses were added to hold up the church wall, which had started to lean outwards.”
2verbargumentTo support an argument or a position.
“She buttressed her argument with figures from three separate studies.”
buttress is a support.
Old French ars bouterez means supporting arches, from bouter, to push, of Frankish origin. Butt comes from the same pushing.
Proto-Germanic
*bautaną — to push
Frankish
*bôtan
Old French
ars bouterez
English, today
buttress
From Old French ars bouterez literally “supporting arcs”, from bouterez, oblique plural of bouteret (rare in the singular), from Frankish bôtan, from Proto-Germanic bautaną (“to push”). Ultimately cognate with beat.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Sharper Verbs, Buildings & Architecture