mortise

English

Alternative forms

• mortice

Etymology

From Middle English morteys, from Old French mortaise, from Arabic مُرْتَزّ (murtazz), from اِرْتَزَّ (irtazza).

Pronunciation

• enPR: môrtĭs, môrtəs, IPA^(key): /ˈmɔː(ɹ).tɪs/, /ˈmɔː(ɹ).təs/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)təs

Noun

mortise (plural mortises)

1. (woodworking) A hole that is made to receive a tenon so as to form a joint. [from 14th c.]

   Coordinate terms: rabbet, rebate, tenon

   • 2016 September 6, A Little Book of Woodworking Joints - Including Dovetailing, Mortise-and-Tenon and Mitred Joints, 2nd edition (paperback), Read Books Limited, →ISBN:

     If there is much gauging for the same size mortise and tenon to be done, and if a mortise gauge is not handy, a simple improvised gauge for the purpose can easily be made with two pieces of wood and four or five steel sprigs…

   • 1918, Herman Frederick Rusch, Shop Work, Joinery-cabinet-making-carpentry, Chicago, Illinois, United States: University of Chicago Press, page 56:

     A keyed mortise-and-tenon joint is constructed the same as a doweled mortise and tenon joint except that the tenon projects far enough through the mortise to admit the insertion of a tapering key which draws the mortised piece firmly against the shoulder of the tenon.

2. Stability; power of adhesion.

Derived terms

• mortise-and-tenon joint
• mortise gear
• mortise lock
• mortise wheel
• stub mortise

 

Translations

a hole for a tenon

• Bulgarian: жлеб (bg) m (žleb)
• Catalan: caixa (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 榫眼 (zh) (sǔnyǎn)

• Czech: dlab (cs) m
• Finnish: lovi (fi), reikä (fi), kolo (fi)
• French: mortaise (fr) f
• Galician: fura (gl) f
• German: Einsteckschloss n, Zapfenloch n
• Hebrew: גֶּרֶז (he) m (gerez), שֶׁקַע (he) m (sheka)
• Ido: mortezo (io)
• Italian: mortasa (it) f
• Japanese: ほぞ穴 (hozoana), 枘穴 (ほぞあな, hozoana)
• Russian: вы́емка (ru) f (výjemka), па́з (ru) m (páz), гнездо́ (ru) n (gnezdó), вы́рез (ru) m (výrez), про́резь (ru) f (prórezʹ)
• Tagalog: bakam, aab (tl)

Verb

mortise (third-person singular simple present mortises, present participle mortising, simple past and past participle mortised)

1. (transitive, woodworking) To cut a mortise in.
   • 1918, Herman Frederick Rusch, Shop Work, Joinery-cabinet-making-carpentry, Chicago, Illinois, United States: University of Chicago Press, page 56:

     A keyed mortise-and-tenon joint is constructed the same as a doweled mortise and tenon joint except that the tenon projects far enough through the mortise to admit the insertion of a tapering key which draws the mortised piece firmly against the shoulder of the tenon.

2. (transitive, woodworking) To join by a mortise and tenon.
3. (typography) To adjust the horizontal space between selected pairs of letters; to kern.

Anagrams

• erotism, moister, stormie, trisome