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zócalo

English translation: socle / border / surround / dado

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Spanish term or phrase:zócalo
English translation:socle / border / surround / dado
Entered by: Nikki Graham

06:21 Oct 16, 2007
Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Architecture / 16th century architecture
Spanish term or phrase: zócalo
Context: description of the features of a 16th century addition to a Moorish building in Spain. "Los zócalos se realizarían en el último momento, culminando con su finalización y el dorado de las molduras, la decoración de los paramentos y de la sala."
and later: "Actualmente todo el zócalo, muy perdido, se encuentra repintado al óleo debido a intervenciones del S. XVII y XVIII". Would this be a dado rail in this context? Or plinth?
Katherine Bartlett
Local time: 01:43
socle
Explanation:
although this can mean skirting board, I have always thought that the latter was too narrow to be a zócalo, which can actually be a large area of tiles placed in the bottom half of a wall.

Socle, in this context, means the base-course, or lower part, of a wall

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Note added at 2 hrs (2007-10-16 08:34:08 GMT)
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Soory, in your context it looks as it is only the covering. I would therefore suggest surround or border.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 6 hrs (2007-10-16 12:22:58 GMT)
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Sorry, now have slightly more time to dedicate to this question.

Dado may well be a possibility in the sense that it is:
the finishing of the lower part of an interior wall from floor to waist height / a border or panelling over the lower half of the walls of a room from the top of the skirting up to the dado capping, which is the same as dado rail or chair rail, and is the moulding along the top of a dado (from the Penguin dictionaries of architecture and building).

So, it cannot be a dado rail, as, this essentially, is just a moulded strip, used to prevetn chairs from damaging walls, and what I think you are talking about is the typical tiled area in Moorish architecture which comes up to about halfway up the walls. I have used surround and border for this in previous translations (depending on context and sentence structure. You can see from the above that dado is described as a border in one of the definitions), but I think dado could be a possiblity too.

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Note added at 6 hrs (2007-10-16 12:26:16 GMT)
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A couple of photos of zocalos. As you can see, they don't look like skirting boards.

http://www.fototeca.us.es/imagen.jsp?id=7249&tipo=v&elto=5&b...

http://www.islamyal-andalus.org/abril04/ceramica_andalusi.ht...
Selected response from:

Nikki Graham
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:43
Grading comment
Having now read through the whole text, I think socle is actually the best option, as elsewhere the author does use it to refer to the whole lower band around the room...and of course both words have the same roots...
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
3 +4skirting board / baseboard
John Rawlins
4socle
Nikki Graham


  

Answers


20 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +4
skirting board / baseboard


Explanation:
from Moliner

1 m. Arq. Parte inferior del exterior de un *edificio, que se distingue del resto por ser de diferente construcción o más saliente, la cual sirve, por ejemplo, para elevar el nivel del primer piso o para nivelarlo cuando el terreno sobre el que se construye es más alto por un lado que por otro. ¤ Parte inferior del muro de una habitación, diferenciada del resto por el color, el revestimiento, etc. Þ Alicer, arrimadillo, arrocabe, citarón, friso, rodapié, suela, vera, zoco.
2 Arq. Elemento de una construcción que sostiene una o más columnas. Ô *Pedestal.
3 Arq. Elemento inferior de un pedestal.
4 Geol. Plataforma rígida de grandes dimensiones que sirve de base a sedimentos más recientes.
5 (Méj.) Plaza principal de una ciudad.

From Oxford

zócalo m
1 (rodapié) baseboard (AmE), skirting board (BrE)
2 (de una columna) base, plinth

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Note added at 35 mins (2007-10-16 06:56:36 GMT)
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From Oxford

dado1 / "deId@U / n (pl -does or (BrE) -dos) (of wall) friso m; (of pedestal) dado m

John Rawlins
Spain
Local time: 01:43
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 32

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  bernar3
25 mins
  -> Gracias/Thanks - Bernar!
agree  trnet
2 hrs
  -> thanks trnet!
agree  Horticulturist
3 hrs
  -> thanks Horticulturist (great name - it grows on you!)
agree  Terry Burgess
6 hrs
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2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
socle


Explanation:
although this can mean skirting board, I have always thought that the latter was too narrow to be a zócalo, which can actually be a large area of tiles placed in the bottom half of a wall.

Socle, in this context, means the base-course, or lower part, of a wall

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2 hrs (2007-10-16 08:34:08 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Soory, in your context it looks as it is only the covering. I would therefore suggest surround or border.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 6 hrs (2007-10-16 12:22:58 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Sorry, now have slightly more time to dedicate to this question.

Dado may well be a possibility in the sense that it is:
the finishing of the lower part of an interior wall from floor to waist height / a border or panelling over the lower half of the walls of a room from the top of the skirting up to the dado capping, which is the same as dado rail or chair rail, and is the moulding along the top of a dado (from the Penguin dictionaries of architecture and building).

So, it cannot be a dado rail, as, this essentially, is just a moulded strip, used to prevetn chairs from damaging walls, and what I think you are talking about is the typical tiled area in Moorish architecture which comes up to about halfway up the walls. I have used surround and border for this in previous translations (depending on context and sentence structure. You can see from the above that dado is described as a border in one of the definitions), but I think dado could be a possiblity too.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 6 hrs (2007-10-16 12:26:16 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

A couple of photos of zocalos. As you can see, they don't look like skirting boards.

http://www.fototeca.us.es/imagen.jsp?id=7249&tipo=v&elto=5&b...

http://www.islamyal-andalus.org/abril04/ceramica_andalusi.ht...

Nikki Graham
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:43
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 553
Grading comment
Having now read through the whole text, I think socle is actually the best option, as elsewhere the author does use it to refer to the whole lower band around the room...and of course both words have the same roots...
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)



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