A "shotgun house" is a narrow rectangular domestic residence, usually no more than 12 feet (3.5 m) wide, with rooms arranged one behind the other and doors at each end of the house. It was the most popular style of house in the Southern United States from the end of the American Civil War (1861–65), through the 1920s. Alternate names include "shotgun shack", "shotgun hut", "shotgun cottage", and in the case of a multihome dwelling, "shotgun apartment". A railroad apartment is somewhat similar, but instead of each room opening onto the next room, it has a side hallway from which rooms are entered...

The piano nobile (Italian, "noble floor" or "noble level", also sometimes referred to by the corresponding French term, bel étage) is the principal floor of a large house, usually built in one of the styles of classical renaissance architecture. This floor contains the principal reception and bedrooms of the house. The piano nobile is often the first (European terminology, 2nd floor in US terms) or sometimes the second storey, located above a ground floor (often rusticated) containing minor rooms and service rooms. The reasons for this were so the rooms would have finer views, and more practically...

Llano Estacado (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈʝano estaˈkaðo], (meaning Palisaded Plain), commonly known as the Staked Plain, is a region in the Southwestern United States that encompasses parts of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas. One of the largest mesas or tablelands on the North American continent, the elevation rises from 3,000 feet (900 m) in the southeast to over 5,000 feet (1,500 m) in the northwest, sloping almost uniformly at about 10 feet per mile (1.9 m/km). == Geography and climate == The Llano Estacado lies at the southern end of the Western High Plains ecoregion of the Great...

This is a list of some Spanish words of Germanic origin. The list includes words from Visigothic, Frankish, Langobardic, Middle Dutch, Middle High German, Middle Low German, Old English, Old High German, Old Norse, Old Swedish, English, and finally, words which come from Germanic with the specific source unknown. Some of these words existed in Latin as loanwords from other languages. Some of these words have alternate etymologies and may also appear on a list of Spanish words from a different language. Some words contain non-Germanic elements (see béisbol in the Middle English section). Any form...

The Puritans were a group of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries, including, but not limited to, English Calvinists. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England. In modern times, the word 'puritan' is often used to mean 'against pleasure'. Historically, the word was used pejoratively to characterise the Protestant group as extremists, similar to the Cathars of France and, according to Thomas Fuller in his Church History, dated back to...

A purist is one who desires that an item remain true to its essence and free from adulterating or diluting influences. The term may be used in almost any field, and can be applied either to the self or to others. Use of the term may be either pejorative or complimentary, depending on the context. Because the appellation depends on subjective notions of what is "pure" as opposed to "adulterating" as applied to any particular item, conflict can arise both as to whether a person so labeled is actually a purist and as to whether that is desirable. According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary...