porch

name

1. A surname.
2. The Stoic philosophy (after the public porch on the agora of Athens where Zeno taught).

noun

Etymology: From Middle English porche, from Old French, from Latin porticus (“portico”). Doublet of portego, portico, and porticus.

1. A covered entrance to a building, whether taken from the interior, and forming a sort of vestibule within the main wall, or projecting without and with a separate roof. A porch often has chair(s), table(s) and swings.

   “He sat on his porch, waiting for his friend to come over.”

   “But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud,[…]. We began to tell her about Mohair and the cotillon, and of our point of observation from the Florentine galleried porch, and she insisted she would join us there.”

2. A portico; a covered walk.
3. The platform outside the external hatch of a spacecraft.

   “By the time he had put on the backpack, McDivitt was ready to let him do more—to stand on the porch at least.”