: a projecting strip on the edge of a folding door
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the WebAlexandria Moulding solid-pine astragal molding (WM 134), 11/16 inches by 1 3⁄8 inches by 96 inches, $16, homedepot.com. Martha Stewart, star-telegram, 26 Aug. 2017
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from French & Latin; French astragale, going back to Middle French, borrowed from Latin astragalus, borrowed from Greek astrágalos "neck vertebra, ball of the ankle joint, (in plural) dice made from the talus bones of hoofed animals, molding in the capital of an Ionic column," of uncertain origin
Note: Traditionally, Greek astrágalos has been derived from a presumed suffixed form (*h2est-r̥-g-) of a heteroclitic Indo-European stem *h2est-r-/h2est-n-, formed from the base *h2ost- "bone" (see osseous); cf. astakós/ostakós "lobster, crayfish," allegedly from *h3esth1-n̥-ko- (see astaxanthin). The velar suffix has been compared with Sanskrit ásṛk, genitive asnáḥ "blood." Beekes, however, objects that a formation *ost-r-k- + a suffix -al- scarcely looks Indo-European, and that, like astakós/ostakós, the word is of substratal origin (Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2010; The Development of the Proto-Indo-European Laryngeals in Greek, Mouton, 1969, p. 51). See also ostracon, oyster.