Ogive

An ogive (/ˈoʊdʒaɪv/ OH-jyve) is the roundly tapered end of a two- or three-dimensional object.

[1] The earliest use of the word ogive is found in the 13th-century sketchbook of Villard de Honnecourt, from Picardy in northern France.

The Oxford English Dictionary considers the French term's origin obscure; it might come from the Late Latin obviata, the feminine perfect passive participle of obviare, meaning the one who has met or encountered the other.

The traditional or secant ogive is a surface of revolution of the same curve that forms a Gothic arch; that is, a circular arc, of greater radius than the diameter of the cylindrical section ("shank"), is drawn from the edge of the shank until it intercepts the axis.

This is a curve very similar to the spitzer ogive, except that the circular arc is replaced by an ellipse defined in such a way that it meets the axis at exactly 90°.

A two pointed-arch vault-system was built inside the Bhitargaon temple (as noted by Alexander Cunningham) which is dated to the early Gupta period of the 4th–5th centuries CE.

[6] The 5th- or 6th-century CE Romano-Byzantine Karamagara Bridge in Cappadocia (in present-day Turkish Central Anatolia) features an early pointed arch as part of an apparent Romano-Greco-Syrian architectural tradition.

[9] Some scholars have refused to accept an Indian origin of the pointed arch, including Hill[who?]

In glaciology, the term ogives refers to alternating bands of light and dark coloured ice that occur as a result of glaciers moving through an icefall.