dadon.
/ˈdeɪdəʊ/, U.S. /ˈdeɪˌdoʊ/ 1. Architecture. A flat-faced plain block forming the portion of a pedestal between the base and the cornice; the face of such a block; = die n.1 4a. Now somewhat rare.
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society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > architecture > column > [noun] > pedestal > dado
trunk1563
tympanum1658
dado1664
die1664
1664 J. Evelyn Acct. Archit. in tr. R. Fréart Parallel Antient Archit. 124 [The Pedestal] is likewise call'd Truncus the Trunk..also Abacus, Dado, Zocco, &c.
1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory iii. 102/1 Dado or Dye is a flat in a Cornice or Pedestal.
1703 R. Neve City & Countrey Purchaser 1 Palladio..calls the Plinth above the Boultin..Abacus: which from its form, saith he, is commonly call'd Dado, or Dye.
1798 J. Barry Let. Dilettanti Soc. 11 The spaces between these dado's or dies being a little more in length than height.
1820 T. Cromwell Excurs. Ireland ii. 81 The dado of the pedestal, above the entablature.
1849 G. Head Rome II. xii. 370 Upon the dado..is an emblazonment of the Papal arms on a shield of gilded bronze.
1878 Evening Bull. (San Francisco) 1 Apr. A pedestal..having upon the faces of the dado the figure, in alto-relief, of a Dacian prince.
1992 Archit. Hist. 35 72 The pedestal dado aligns with the column shaft at its top.
2. Architecture and Interior Decorating. Originally: wooden panelling running along the lower part of the wall of a room, made to resemble a continuous pedestal, and typically reaching up to waist height; spec. the flat surface of the panelling between the skirting and the cornice. In later use more generally: the lower part of the wall of a room, typically reaching up to waist height, when decorated differently from the upper part. Cf. wainscot n. 2.
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society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > furniture and fittings > wallcovering > [noun] > dado
dado1741
dado moulding1765
1741 B. Langley & T. Langley Builder's Jewel iv. 21 To proportion the Tuscan Cornice to a Room of any Height. Divide the Height, from the Floor or Dado, in 5, and the upper 1 in 5.
1745 A. Swan Brit. Architect Introd. p. v Columns may be called Entire without Pedestals; the chief Use of these being for Ballustrades, Obeliscks, Statues, and dados of Wainscotted Rooms, &c.
1759 C. Powys Passages from Diaries Mrs. Powys (1899) 44 The saloon is answerable in magnificence to the rest; its dado is lin'd with marble.
1794 Builder's Price-bk. (ed. 11) 41 Whole deal dove-tailed dado and keyed.
1807 Gentleman's Mag. July 624/1 The walls covered with common blue paper, and a painted canvas dado.
1854 Ecclesiologist 15 357 A dado of oak-panelling.
1877 W. Black Green Pastures & Piccadilly III. v. 77 Oh, by the way, Lady Sylvia, how did your dado of Indian matting look?
1879 M. E. Braddon Vixen III. 249 Mabel insisted upon having..a sage-green wall with a chocolate dado—did you ever hear of a dado?—in the new morning-room.
1938 Amer. Home Jan. 17/1 The broad expanses of common brick painted white, satisfactorily weighted for visual effect at the base by a dado of black silica brick several feet high.
1958 ‘S. Miles’ Lettice Delmer 7 The painted walls, bile-green with ox-blood dado, Scabbed and peeled above the hot-water pipes.
1995 K. McCloud Techniques of Decorating (1998) 18/3 The high dado of wooden panelling and the parquet-effect wood floor combine to make a cradle of colour.
3. North American. Woodworking and Joinery.
a. A tool used for cutting a channel or slot across the grain in the face of a piece of wood, esp. to allow for the insertion of another piece of wood. Now rare.
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1825 Providence (Rhode Island) Patriot 19 Oct. (advt.) Joiners' and Carpenters' Tools... Dados.
1875 J. D. Edwards Carpenter's Man. 25 The dado looks something like the rebate plane, but is used for cutting grooves across the stuff.
1904 Waterloo (Iowa) Daily Courier 14 May 7/2 (advt.) Full set of carpenter's moulding planes, including hollows and rounds, rabbets, dadoes, double and single beads.
1938 Motor Boating Mar. 54/2 A groove plane is handy for this work if a circular saw or dado is not available.
b. A channel or slot cut across the grain in the face of a piece of wood, into which the edge of another piece is fixed; = housing n.1 5.
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society > occupation and work > industry > building or constructing > constructing or working with wood > [noun] > wooden structures or wooden parts of > means of fitting together > types of joint > groove or cavity
rabbeta1382
rabbetinga1382
mortise1440
pulley mortise1733
chase1823
housing1823
stub mortise1846
dado1875
trench1923
1875 J. D. Edwards Carpenter's Man. 90 The groove itself is also called a dado.
1885 Mech. Engineer 4 Apr. p. iii/1 (advt.) We have, however, machines for..grooving, graining, rabbetting, cutting dadoes and turning.
1938 Pop. Sci. Monthly Nov. 174/1 Gauge depth of dado (usually one half of the stock thickness or less) on both edges of the board.
1964 Lethbridge (Alberta) Herald 11 Apr. 18/8 You can..fit the shelf into the dado.
2012 Joinery Tips & Techniques i. 8/2 Rabbets, grooves and dados can be ‘through’ (run entirely across the board..), or stopped at either of both ends.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
a. In senses 1 and 2, as dado moulding, dado wall, etc.
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society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > furniture and fittings > wallcovering > [noun] > dado
dado1741
dado moulding1765
1765 J. Prestage Particular of Well-built Dwelling House 3 A little inner room with a deal floor, painted dado wainscot and hung with paper to the cornice.
1774 T. Skaife Key Civil Archit. xv. 67 This sort of skirting to stairs is always allowed double measure; the same of raking, dado mouldings, &c. if they are ramped.
1809 Gentleman's Mag. Apr. 327/2 The columns and architraves..are very delicate and beautiful; the dado mouldings are remarkably so.
1837 Penny Cycl. VIII. 284 A cornice or dado moulding surmounting the die.
1876 Congregationalist (Boston, Mass.) 8 Mar. 73/3 The artist proposes to treat the history as an effective dado decoration for the walls of a room.
1881 Independent Statesman (Concord, New Hampsh.) 21 July 1/ The furniture of the family moving out had torn the dado paper.
1935 W. Empson Poems 22 Snow-puppy curves, rose-solemn dado band.
1981 Inventory Anc. Monuments Glamorgan: Vol. 4 (Royal Comm. Anc. & Hist. Monuments Wales) I. 276/1 The walls of the drawing-room are panelled, the dado panels framed by ovolo moulding.
2002 R. Bork in N. Y. Wu Ad Quadratum xi. 244 Thirteenth-century dado walls were built up against the lower western faces of the cathedral's Ottonian transept.
b. In sense 3, as dado blade, dado joint, dado plane, etc.
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1844 R. G. Hatfield Amer. House-carpenter vi. 219 With a 1¼ inch dado plane, make a succession of grooves 1¼ inches apart.
1879 Manufacturer & Builder July 149/3 This gives every facility for the use of grooving or dado heads.
1893 Galveston (Texas) Daily News 1 Mar. 8/4 Four planers.., 1 dado machine, 3 table saws, [etc.].
1899 Treat. on Archit. & Building Constr. (Internat. Corr. Schools) II. x. 6 The tongued-and-grooved joint.., the dado joint.., and the housed joint.., are all modifications of the same form.
1949 Pop. Mech. May 304/2 (advt.) Saw table and sander table raise and lower for rabbeting and dado work.
1956 Clearing House 31 132/1 These grooves may be cut on any power saw with dado cutters.
1967 Pop. Sci. Mar. 164/1 Next shape the two sides, making dado cuts for both shelves.
2014 N. Macdonald Woodworking (ed. 2) ii. 160/2 Radial arm saws may be fitted with dado blades to make rabbets and dados.
C2.
dado rail n. a decorative (usually wooden) rail running along the wall of a room, typically along the upper edge of the dado (sense 2) or at approximately waist height.
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c1870 Techn. Educator II. 120/2 Let a dado be formed of one paper, the dado bordering (dado rail) of a suitable paper bordering.
1911 Bull. Metrop. Mus. Art 6 13/1 A mahogany dado rail ornamented with acanthus or waterleaf.
1985 Old-house Jrnl. Mar. 51/2 Cornice mouldings and dado rails are attached with ceramic-tile adhesive.
2014 Guardian (Nexis) 11 Jan. (Weekend Suppl.) 60 The walls are..painted black below the dado rail and white above it.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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