the.com/scaffolding
The building's awkward exoskeleton, worn only until it learns to stand alone.
means A temporary framework of poles and platforms that lets workers build, repair, or reach the parts of a structure they couldn't otherwise stand next to.
from Traces back through Old French 'escadafaut' to a blend tied to Latin 'ex-' plus 'catafalicum' (related to catafalque, a raised platform for viewing) — the same root family gave English 'scaffold' in its grimmer sense of an execution platform. Both senses share the core idea of a built-up stage raising people or work above ground level; the construction meaning is the older, more literal one, while the gallows sense is a darker offshoot of the same 'raised platform' idea.
- origin
- from Latin scala, meaning ladder
- irony
- often outlasts the renovation it was built for
- metaphor use
- teaching term for temporary help toward independence
- engineering fact
- must hold more weight than the building itself