among the Greeks in Homer's time, an uncovered space around the house, enclosed by a wall, in which the stables stood, hence among the Orientals that roofless enclosure by a wall, in the open country in which the flocks were herded at night, a sheepfold

the uncovered courtyard of the house. In the O.T. particularly of the courts of the tabernacle and of the temple in Jerusalem. The dwellings of the higher classes usually had two, one exterior, between the door and the street; the other interior, surrounded by the buildings of the dwelling itself. The latter is mentioned Mat. 26:69.

the house itself, a palace