Pl. fasciæ. In architectural uses also -as. Forms: 7 fasia, facea, 8 facio, -tio, 9 facia (with English plural), 6– fascia. [a. L. fascia in senses 1 and 2.]
† 1. in Lat. sense: A band, fillet. Obs.
1587. T. Underdown, trans. Heliodorus, 85. Cariclia tied a part of her fascia that was foule, about her head.
1594. Drayton, Ideas, Wks. (1748), xlviii. 399.
| Cupid, I hate thee, which I’d have thee know, | |
| A naked starveling ever may’st thou be, | |
| Poor rogue, go pawn thy fascia and thy bow, | |
| For some few rags, wherewith to cover thee. |
1606. B. Jonson, Hymenæi, Wks. (Rtldg.), 554/2. A veil, and that bound with a fascia of several colour’d silks.
2. Archit. Any long flat surface of wood, stone or marble, esp. in the Doric order the band which divides the architrave, and in the Ionic and Corinthian orders, each of the three surfaces into which the architrave is divided. (Hence the use explained under FACIA.)
1563. Shute, Archit., D ij a. Vnto the lowest Fascia … vnto the second Fascia … & also geue vnto the third Fascia the 5 partes which remaineth.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel (1664), 71. Beades in the Fasia, cut at round.
1703. T. N., City & C. Purchaser, 13. A broad Plinth, or Fatio.
1766. Entick, London, IV. 81. The ancient church was burnt down in 1666, and made way for the present edifice, built partly with brick, and stone faceas.
1769. De Foe, Tour Gt. Brit., I. 169. This Work, towards the Sea, is crowned with a Facia and Torus of wrought Stone, which supports a Parapet-wall of the same.
1827. G. Higgins, Celtic Druids, Introd., p. 46. One [Round TowerJ at Ardmore has fasciæ at the several stories, which all the rest … seem to want.
1881. F. Young, Every man his own Mechanic, § 1354. To the ends of the rafters a facia should be nailed.
† b. A ceiling coved on two opposite sides only.
1613–39. I. Jones, in Leoni, Palladio’s Archit. (1742), I. 39. A Fascia is the same as a Conca, and terminates to the wall. Ibid. (1715), (1721), I. 83. The Hall is arch’d with a Fascia.
3. Anat. A thin sheath of fibrous tissue investing a muscle or some special tissue or organ; an aponeurosis.
1788. H. Watson, in Med. Commun., II. 268. Tendinous expansions, or Fasciæ … support the muscles.
1804. Abernethy, Surg. Obs., 30. A healthy middle-aged man had a tumour formed apparently beneath the fascia of his thigh, which he remembered when no bigger than an egg.
1840. G. Ellis, Anat., 413. The palmar fascia and the transverse ligament of the metacarpal bones.
1854. Owen, Skel. & Teeth (1855), 3. The temporal fascia in the turtle.
1876. Duhring, Dis. Skin, 24. Above it blends intimately with the corium, while its deeper layers are connected with the superficial fascia of muscles.
b. The substance of which this is composed.
1881. St. George Jackson Mivart, The Cat, 133. Externally, this muscle is only covered by skin and fascia.
4. Any object, or collection of objects, that gives the appearance of a band or stripe, a. Astron. The belt of a planet. b. Conchol. A row of perforations. c. Bot., Zool., and Ornith. A band of color. d. Her. = FESSE.
a. 1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., Fasciæ, in the Planet Mars, are certain Rows of Spots, parallel to the Equator of that Planet, which looks like Swathes or Fillets wound round about his Body.
1825. W. Hamilton, Hand-bk. Terms Art & Sc., Fasciæ, the belts seen on the discs of the superior planets.
b. 1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., ix. 571. In the Spatangoida the ambulacra commonly present the same heterogeneous character; but the oral portions are not arranged in fasciæ.
c. 1752. Sir J. Hill, Hist. Anim., 152. There are three brown fasciæ running over it of considerable breadth.
1826. Kirby & Spence, Entomol. (1828), III. xxxii. 302. The secondary wings are black with an orange fascia near the posterior margin.
1839. Jardine, Brit. Birds, II. 80. An ill-defined ochraceous fascia across the vent.
d. 1880. Encycl. Brit., XI. 694/2, ‘Heraldry.’ The Fess, fesse, fascia, is a strip placed horizontally across the middle of the field.
