Ridge - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

RIDGE (a word common to many Teutonic languages, meaning "back," whether of a man or an animal, cf. German Riicke), the word applied to many objects resembling the projecting line of an animal's back, such as the strip of soil thrown up by a plough between furrows, the elevations or protuberances on bones which serve for the attachment of muscles or ligaments, &c. In architecture the ridge (Fr. faite, crete; Gr. First; Ital. asinello) is the highest portion of a roof, which is covered with lead, slate, or tiles, and sometimes decorated with a cresting in terra-cotta or metal-work. The term is also applied to the meeting of the common rafters on each side of a roof, which are sometimes butted against an upright board known as the ridge-piece. For the ridge-rib see RIB.