On Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:07:50 -0700 (PDT), a certain chimpanzee, "Man
at B&Q" randomly hit the keyboard and
produced:

A buttress is load bearing.

Isn't it more that common usage has come to interpret "load bearing"
as supporting something above rather than supporting something to the
side?

In the sense that load = a force acting on an object, then yes, a
buttress is load bearing. However, I did want to point out that a
structural member does more than react to gravitational forces.
--
Hugo Nebula
"If no-one on the internet wants a piece of this,
just how far from the pack have you strayed?"