Also 7 candi-, 7–9 canti-, 8–9 cantaliver, 8 cantaliever, 8–9 cantalever. [The spelling candilever found in the 17th c. (if of any authority) compared with the Sp. ‘can debaxo de la viga, mutilus super quem capita trabium imponuntur, a corbel in masonry’ (Minsheu, Voc. Hisp., 1617), naturally suggests some such Sp. phrase as can de llevar, ‘modillion for carrying or bearing’: but of this there is actually no trace. On the other hand the name ‘flying lever bridge’ used in A treatise on Bridge-building by T. Pope, New York, 1811, for what is now called a ‘cantilever bridge,’ and the term ‘framed lever’ used for cantilever in Tredgold’s Carpentry, 1828, indicate that lever in its ordinary mechanical sense, is part of the word. For the first part we then think of CANT sb.1, but as to the meaning in which that word might be here used, or the nature of the combination in canti-lever or canta-lever, no satisfactory suggestion can be offered. (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., has canting-livre = console-bracket.)]
1. Arch. A kind of bracket or support of stone, wood, or iron, whose length is many times its breadth and more than twice its depth, which projects from the wall of a building for the support of a balcony, the upper members of a cornice, eaves of a house, etc.; also attrib., as in cantilever cornice, principle.
1667. Primatt, City & C. Build., 71. For Candilivers about eighteen inches deep and eight inches broad, handsomly carved with flowers.
1740. Pineda, Span.-Eng. Dict., Can, a dog … In architecture, the end of timber or stone jutting out of a wall, on which in old buildings the beams used to rest, called Cantilevers.
1759. B. Martin, Nat. Hist. Eng., I. 311. Wainscot Galleries round it, sustained by Cantilevers.
1869. Latest News, 26 Sept., 14. A plan … for widening London Bridge by … forming footways upon cantilevers and brackets external to the road.
1880. Contemp. Rev., March, 421. Each architrave, each niche within the wall, Each cantilever, moulding, tooth or ball.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 5 Dec., 11/2. The cantilever principle in its first development.
2. In Bridge-building. A projecting support or arm of great length, two of which, stretching out from adjacent piers, are used to support a girder which unites them and completes the span; also attrib., as in cantilever arm, bridge, etc.
[1811. T. Pope, Treatise on Bridge-building (N. York) frontisp. Flying lever bridge.]
1850. E. Clark, Britannia & Conway Bridges, I. 276. The semibeam or cantilever … has to support half the weight of the beam … suspended from its extremity [At p. 44 ‘bracket arch’ is used].
1867. B. Baker, in Engineering, III. 338. (Long Span-Bridges). The cantilever girder of uniform depth in appearance is identical with the independent girder.
1882. American, IV. 70. A combination of two cantilevers with a central girder.
1887. Hazell’s Ann. Cycl., 174/2. The main feature [of the Forth Bridge] will be the extraordinary spans, for a rigid structure, of a third of a mile in length, each of which is made by two cantilevers of 680 feet long, united by 350 feet of girder.
