dais

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English deis, also deys and dees,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman deis (“dais, high seat; high table”),^[5][2][6][7] recorded from 1155,^[7] the same word as Old French deis, later dois,^[8][9][10] from Latin discus (“quoit, disk, dish”),^[8][5][3] which in Late Latin also meant "table".^[8][11][6] The Latin is from Ancient Greek δίσκος (dískos, “quoit, disk, dish”),^[5][4] and Wiktionary goes on to δικεῖν (dikeîn, “to cast, to throw”).^[1] The OED compares Old Occitan des and Italian desco.^[8] The present spelling comes from French dais, which is from Picard dialect.^[8][4][11] It is a doublet of desk, discus, dish and disk.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A raised table in a hall, at which distinguished people sat at feasts: before 1259, in M. Paris's lives of the abbots of St Albans.^[8] Barnhart finds deys probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder, and deis about 1300,^[4] and Etymonline dates it to about 1300, as a platform at one end of a room.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The OED traces the development from "table" to "high table, with its platform", then to the raised end of the hall where the high table stood, and in modern French to the canopy over it.^[8] To begin the dais meant to take the chief seat at a feast, from 1297 to 1500.^[8] Chaucer used the word eight times, as dees and deys, and Gower four times.^[12] It died out in English about 1600 but survived in Scots,^[8][5][11] where a deas was a long board, bench or settle,^[8][13] sometimes one that could turn into a table or a bed.^[14] Historical and antiquarian writers revived the platform sense after 1800,^[8][13][11] and the word reached English dictionaries only with Worcester in 1846 and Craig in 1847.^[8] It then spread to outdoor terraces in 1861 and to the platform of a lecture hall in 1888.^[8] The canopy sense, taken from modern French in 1863, is according to the OED not really an English one.^[8]

Timeline

• before 1259 – a raised table for distinguished people at feasts (obsolete by 1600).^[8]
• c. 1290 – the raised platform at one end of a hall.^[8] Barnhart has the word probably before 1300.^[4]
• 1297 – to begin the dais, to preside at a feast (obsolete by 1500).^[8]
• before 1330 – a seat or bench, chiefly northern.^[8]
• 1861 – a raised platform or terrace of any kind, as out of doors.^[8]
• 1863 – the canopy over a throne.^[8]
• 1888 – the platform of a lecture hall or place of worship.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A raised platform at one end of a hall or large room, giving prominence to speakers or guests of honour: The mayor spoke from the dais.^[15][3][8]
2. A raised terrace out of doors.^[3][8]
3. (Scottish and northern) A long board, seat or settle against a wall; also spelled deas.^[8][13][3]
4. (archaic) A canopy over a throne.^[3][8]
5. (obsolete, 1259–1600) A raised table in a hall; the high table.^[8][13]

Related words

• desk
• dish
• disk
• disc
• discus

Usage notes

The word is always one syllable in French and was so in early English; the two-syllable pronunciation is now the more usual,^[8] and Barnhart and Ayto put it down to the spelling.^[4][11] A note of 1927 printed in American Speech already prescribed two syllables, while Gimson (1967) gave /ˈdeiis/ first and /deis/ second.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins