Doric

One of the principal regional dialects of ancient Greece, traditionally named after the tribe of the Dorians.

In classical architecture, the "Doric order", a plain, early Classical, Greek style characterized by a simple, often rather stubby column, fluted but without base, with a capital with shallow bowl-shaped echinus and slab-like abacus. Over the columns were placed directly the linking beams (architrave), and over these, a frieze of alternating triglyph ('triple groove') and metope ('brow') - a pattern generally believed to originate from a decorative treatment of beam-ends and spaces.

A style of architecture used on mainland Greece and in the western Mediterranean with the plainest of capitals and a simple column with no pedestal or base and a distinctive echinus and abacus. The order was distinguished by being the earliest and simplest. The fluted columns had a diameter-to-height ratio of one to eight, and the frieze was alternating triglyphs (triple groove) and metopes (brow). It was named after the tribe of the Dorians. (syn. doric, Doric style, Doric column)

(1) One of the principal regional dialects of ancient Greece, traditionally named after the tribe of the Dorians. (2) In classical architecture, the ‘Doric order’, a plain, early Classical, Greek style characterized by a simple, often rather stubby column, fluted but without base, with a capital with shallow bowl-shaped echinus and slab-like abacus. Over the columns were placed directly the linking beams (architrave), and over these, a frieze of alternating triglyph (‘triple groove’) and metope (‘brow’) — a pattern generally believed to originate from a decorative treatment of beam-ends and spaces.