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lath

UK/lɑːθ/US/lɑːθ/
nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,469 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: laths

A lath is a thin narrow strip of wood used in building. Lath and plaster, nail the laths, split laths.

Lath and plaster is how every wall and ceiling was built before plasterboard: strips nailed with gaps, and the plaster squeezed through to key behind them. Anybody drilling into an old ceiling meets them.

Asmithmd1 · Public domain

Definitions of lath

  1. 1nounlathA thin narrow strip of wood used in building.C2

    “When we knocked down the old wall, we found rows of lath behind the crumbling plaster.”

lath is a strip.

Where it comes from

Old English laett names the strip, from a West Germanic root.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *(s)lat-

  2. Proto-Germanic

    *laþô

  3. Proto-West Germanic

    *lattu

  4. Old English

    lætt — lath

  5. Middle English

    laththe

  6. English, today

    lath

From Middle English laththe, laþþe, earlier lathe, laþe, altered from Old English lætt (“lath”), from Proto-West Germanic lattu, from Proto-Germanic laþô (compare Dutch lat, German Latte) from Proto-Indo-European (s)lat- (compare Welsh llath (“rod, wand, yard”)).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

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lath in the wild

  • In the mid-20th century, drywall construction became prevalent in North America as a time- and labor-saving alternative to lath and plaster.

    Drywall

  • Stucco can be applied over construction materials such as metal, expanded metal lath, concrete, cinder block, or clay brick and adobe for decorative, protective or structural purposes.

    Stucco

  • Members of the union finish interior walls and ceilings of buildings and apply plaster on masonry, metal, and wire lath or gypsum.

    Operative Plasterers' and Cement Masons' International Association

  • Historically, reed mat was also used as a lath material.

    Lath

  • Oversized 12 by 2 inch floor and ceiling joists and Byrkit lath are key identifying features in the search for Wright's ASBHs lost or forgotten.

    American System-Built Homes

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

  • lathe
  • lather