especially applied to the Pointed arch, is an architectural term first used in the 14th century. The Pointed style occurs in Egypt, Italy, Greece, and Mexico in ancient buildings, merely as a freak of the architect, an accident, or irregularity. Some authors have traced its origin to the avenues of a forest; others have seen it in the palm, in the wooden churches of an earlier period, or the intersecting arcade. Some refer it to the Goths, like Warburton; or to the Saracens, like Christopher Wren. (See GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE).