cryptoporticus

[ krip-tuh-pawr-ti-kuhs, -pohr- ]

noun

, plural cryp·to·por·ti·cus.

1. a covered passage, as one underground, lighted on one side.
2. a portico at the entrance to a crypt.

Word History and Origins

Origin of cryptoporticus¹

1675–85; < Latin: covered passage; crypto-, portico

Example Sentences

The DNA testing could “determine the degree of kinship between some of the victims,” he said, like the two girls found hugging each other in the so-called House of the Cryptoporticus.

From New York Times

He could even summon a classical rationale for underground living spaces: “The Romans did it. They had a thing called the cryptoporticus, so you could keep cool in the summer.”

From The New Yorker

From here, it’s on to Domitian’s tunnel-like cryptoporticus, where he and his entourage could talk privately and take cool walks in warm weather, and then on to the Viale delle Erbe Aromatiche—a pathway bordered by climbing roses and, as its name suggests, aromatic herbs—which skirts the edge of a citrus garden whose fruitful lemon and orange trees sit in huge terracotta pots around topiaries cut into fleurs-de-lis and other filigreed shapes.

From Architectural Digest

From here, it’s on to Domitian’s tunnel-like cryptoporticus, where he and his entourage could talk privately and take cool walks in warm weather, and then on to the Viale delle Erbe Aromatiche—a pathway bordered by climbing roses and, as its name suggests, aromatic herbs—which skirts the edge of a citrus garden whose fruitful lemon and orange trees sit in huge terracotta pots around topiaries cut into fleurs-de-lis and other filigreed shapes.

From Architectural Digest

Last week one of the first houses to be restored with the European funds, the so-called House of the Cryptoporticus, officially reopened to the public.

From New York Times