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The word is derived from Latin ‘cuspis’ meaning a point. In its mathematical sense it refers to the meeting point of two curves at a common tangent. Sir James Hall Bt., Essay on origin, history and principles of Gothic Architecture, 1797, 1813 edition p. 32, is the first cited use in an architectural context. He there makes a point of the fact that he has borrowed the word from a mathematical context to explain an architectural form. Ruskin gives an account of his use of the word at Works, 10.256 and following. For him it expresses the ‘utmost strength and permanency’ in architectural form and it is related to the leafage of Gothic Naturalism. Permanence and stability and truth were the themes that Ruskin set out in the first two diary entries in Dijon.
The cusp is characteristic of what Ruskin defines as the 4th Order, 5th Order, and 6th Order of Venetian arches.
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[Version 0.05: May 2008]