Replies

1. 
   Hudson Valley Carpenter | Jul 19, 2008 03:35pm | #1

   I ain't no grammerian but if a roof is "gabled" then someone had to gable it.  As gable is a noun, not a verb, it seems clear that a roof can be hip, even if it ain't, but not "hipped". 

   Can you dig me?  ;-)

    

   
   

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   Edited 7/19/2008 8:36 am by Hudson Valley Carpenter

1. 
   Oak River Mike | Jul 19, 2008 10:58pm | #2

   I'm "hip" to that!

2. 
   CapnMac | Jul 20, 2008 01:38am | #3

   I say it never with the "-ed" and than  you could say your roof is Gambreled or Mansarded.  :)

   May be regional usage, too.

   I know the adjective form is used in print; Anne's house has a gabled roof, all seven of them.  Many of the Prairie and Four-Square houses are described as having hipped roofs.  Now, a NE "rancher" with one gable end and one hip-roofed (dang it, had to make "roof" the adjective <eyeroll>) end, might be a gable-hip roof (but unlikely to be a hip gable, can y'dig it? <g>).

   "Gambrelled" almost implies more than one roof mass, as it the plan were an L or T or cruciform shape.  Now, the number of hipped gambrels is pretty low, so "gambrel" becomes a singular usage, an adjective of its own.  Mansard seems to be similar; and "mansarded" sounds wrong , which probably goes back to its roots in a French term (and I haven't the first clue on french adjective spelling; barely know plurals <aiyiyiyi>).

   Ok, poked in my electronic Random House dictionary, it gives gambrel as "game leg" which the bent roof line might be considered to suggest.  No verb or adjective lested there, though (nor note of use as a roof type, either--go figure).

   Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)