Forms: α. 8– veranda (8 -do, -der). β. 8– verandah. γ. 8–9 viranda, -dah (8 -do, -der). δ. 8 feranda, feerandah, verunda, voranda, 8–9 varanda, 9 verhandah. [Originally introduced from India, where the word is found in several of the native languages, as Hindi varandā, Bengali bārāndā, mod. Skr. baranda, but appears to be merely an adoption of Pg. and older Sp. varanda (baranda) railing, balustrade, balcony. F. véranda appears to have been adopted from English.
The evidence for the origin of the word is fully presented in Yule and Burnell’s Hobson-Jobson. The supposition that it was native to India accounts for some of the spellings placed under δ.]
1. An open portico or light roofed gallery extending along the front (and occas. other sides) of a dwelling or other building, freq. having a front of lattice-work, and erected chiefly as a protection or shelter from the sun or rain.
α. 1711. C. Lockyer, Acc. Trade India, 20. The Building is very ancient, two Story high, and has … two large Verandas or Piazzas.
1757. J. H. Grose, Voy. E. Indies, 84. A pent-house or shed, that forms what is called in the Portugueze Lingua-franca Verandas, either round, or on particular sides of the house.
1793. Hodges, Trav. India, 39. These boats … are, however, extremely commodious, having in the center a small verander, or open portico.
1866. Lowell, Biglow P., Introd., Poems (1890), II. 201. The Captain was walking up and down the veranda of a country tavern in Massachusetts while the coach changed horses.
1884. J. Gilmour, Mongols, xxvii. 325. A crowd of women … take their stand in the veranda of a temple.
β. 1800. Asiat. Ann. Reg., 314/1. All around is a wide verandah, containing ranges of cells.
1808. Eleanor Sleath, Bristol Heiress, V. 208. Emma … advanced to meet Lady Castelton as she quitted her chair at the verandah.
1859. L. Oliphant, China & Japan, II. ix. 198. The building itself was in the form of a shed, with very deep verandahs.
1879. R. H. Elliot, Written on Foreheads, II. 2. After dinner we will sit in the verandah, and look at our annual exhibition of fireworks.
γ. 1750. ‘Philalethes,’ Jrnl. Boscawen’s Voy. Bombay, 45. When we got to the Prince’s, he was sitting in a miserable little Virando or Piazza.
1765. Phil. Trans., LVII. 219. Hence people get out into the virando’s and elsewhere for breath.
1793. Hodges, Trav. India, vii. 146. The space between the angle rooms are viranders, or open porticoes, to sit in during the evenings.
1818. Lady Morgan, France (ed. 3), II. 5. The pretty grisettes … were … not unconscious … of the glasses pointed from the virandas of Tortoni’s or Hardy’s cafés.
1833. N. Arnott, Physics (ed. 5), II. 184. When a slightly projecting roof, or a viranda, shadows … the whole front of a house.
1844. Dickens, Pictures from Italy (1846), 174. There are virandas and balconies … to almost every house.
δ. 1754–73. E. Ives, Voy. India, I. iii. 45. Near each of the vorandas, there is a square room with a pillar in the middle.
1784. in Archaeologia, VII. 287. A feerandah, or piazza, which extends from east to west sixty feet. Ibid. (1786), VIII. 254. The other gate leads to what in this country [India] is called a veranda or feranda, which is a kind of piazza, or landing place.
1800. Asiat. Ann. Reg., 128/2. His Lordship is supposed to be seated in the east verunda of the government-house.
1836. T. Hook, G. Gurney, I. 46. Vestibules, varhandahs,… palanquins and punkahs.
† b. Without article. Obs.
1776. Trial of Nundocomar, 33/2. He was not in the room I saw him in yesterday; but in a little room of Veranda.
c. Austr. (See quots.)
1873. Trollope, Australia, I. 418. The verandah is a kind of open exchange,—some place on the street pavement apparently selected by chance, on which the dealers in mining shares do congregate.
1898. Morris, Austral Eng., 489/1. Verandahs … are an architectural feature … of most City shops, where they render the broad side-walks an almost continuous arcade. ‘Under the Verandah’ has acquired the meaning, ‘where city men most do congregate.’
2. attrib. and Comb., as veranda pillar, -post, etc.; veranda-builder, -like adj.
1852. Life in Bombay, 17. A support to a light verandah-like roof.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Verandah-builder, a maker of wire or wood lattice-work.
1868. Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 204. There is no … climbing plant that can excel this as a covering for veranda pillars.
c. 1890. A. Murdoch, Yoshiwara Episode, 73. She clasped the verandah post … to keep her from falling in a swoon.
1897. Kipling, Captains Courageous, 196. Cheyne, in a verandah-room,… toiled along wearily from day to day.
