Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Lexicon: Nogged

An early blog entry addressed the use of bousillage, bouzillage, barreaux, and briquette-entre-poteaux to describe Louisiana wattle and daub construction. The 1895 Sanborn Atlas for New Orleans uses another term altogether, nogged. Some structures are labelled "br. nogged" for "brick-nogged." According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term was first used in the late seventeenth century, in reference to a wall. The related term "nogging" was used in medieval accounts of the late fifteenth century. By the early twentieth century, the expression was associated with a South Worcestershire dialect. For the 1895 Sanborn atlases, brick-nogged structures are indicated with alternating pink (masonry) and yellow (timber) bands along the perimeter walls.

To view historic Sanborn atlases for the region, consult the Southeastern Architectural Archive's collection of fire insurance atlases. Some atlases are also available through Digital Sanborn online, a subscription database available via Tulane University Libraries. Do note that the digital format lacks the color indicators and holographic additions of the physical copies.

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