porticuses

Noun

porticus (plural porticuses or porticus)

1. A small room in a church, commonly forming extensions to the north and south sides of it, giving the building a cruciform plan, which may function as a chapel, rudimentary transept or burial place.
   • It remains therefore to speculate on the form of the church: whether we located north and south aisles beyond the nave or whether these are porticuses is not clear. The church could have been fully aisled, or it might have had shorter aisles extending to the east end, or just flanking porticuses.1980, Papers of the British School at Rome, R. Clay and Sons, page 110
2. An ancient Roman colonnade, arcade, or portico.
   • It lay between the Circus Flaminius and the theatre of Marcellus, occupying the same site as the porticus which was built by Q. Caecilius Metellus, after his triumph over Macedonia, in b. c. 146 [Metellus, No. 5], and enclosing, as the porticus of Metellus had done, the two temples of Jupiter...1872, William Smith, editor, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, volumes III (Oarses–Zygia), London: John Murray, […], pages 4, 6, and 675