the.com/mullion
the unsung skeleton holding your window's panes apart so glass doesn't dream of falling
means A mullion is the slender vertical bar that divides a window into separate panes or sections.
from From Middle English 'monial,' borrowed from Old French 'moinel,' meaning a middle or central piece — a cousin of the word 'mean' in its old sense of 'middle.' The form 'mullion' seems to have arisen later, possibly altered through dialect and the messiness of spoken English, so the bar that holds the middle of the window quietly carries 'middle' in its bones.
- job
- Vertical bar dividing a window into sections
- sibling
- Horizontal version is called a transom
- gothic roots
- Stone mullions built medieval cathedral windows
- etymology
- Likely from Old French moinel, meaning middle
- structural
- Bears load so glass spans stay thin
chartres cathedral — gothic cathedral with 176 stone mullions dividing its stained glass windows, built 12th-13th century in france
king's college chapel — cambridge college chapel with intricate fan-vaulted ceiling and elaborate mullioned windows, completed 1547