Etymologically
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pedestal

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈpɛdɪstəl/, /ˈpɛdɪsˌtuːl/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French piedestal, also pedestal (recorded 1526–37; modern piédestal),[2][3][4] from Italian piedistallo (“base of a pillar”), also piedestallo (late 13th century).[2][3][5] The Italian word is literally "foot of a stall": piede (“foot”), shortened piè, from Latin pēs (“foot”), with di (“of”), from dē, and stallo (“stall, place, seat”), which is of Germanic origin;[3][6][7] Barnhart compares Old High German stal (“place”).[3][6][7][2] Etymonline traces the Latin noun to Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“foot”).[4] The English spelling of the first syllable was influenced by the Latin stem ped-.[3][4][8][9][7] The OED compares Medieval Latin pedestallum (1342, in Italian sources) and Spanish pedestal (1539).[2] Klein compares English footstall,[7] and Etymonline gives Old English fotstan (“foot-stone”) as an earlier word for it.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In classical architecture, the part of a column below the base of the shaft, with the plinth and dado: 1563, in John Shute's First Groundes of Architecture.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From the architectural part the word spread to any base or support: figuratively from 1605, in Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas,[2] and as the support of a machine or apparatus from 1665, in Hooke's Micrographia.[2] Engineers used it for a pillow-block from 1814, and early railways briefly for the chair on which a rail rests (1816–35).[2] In furniture it named the two supports of a sideboard or large table from 1851 and the drawer units of a kneehole desk from 1866.[2][10] A humorous use for a person's feet or legs ran from 1695, in Congreve's Love for Love, to about 1830;[2] Green's Dictionary of Slang quotes Ned Ward for it in 1698.[11] The figurative sense of a position of admiration, especially an exaggerated one, as in put someone on a pedestal, is recorded from 1811 in the OED[2] and by 1859 in Etymonline.[4] The verb, to set on a pedestal, often figuratively, dates from 1648.[2][12] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as the lower member of a pillar or the base of a statue.[13]

Timeline

  • 1563 – the base of a column, in classical architecture.[2][3][12]
  • 1605 – figuratively, a base or foundation.[2]
  • 1648 – verb, to set on a pedestal.[2][12]
  • 1665 – a supporting base for a mechanism or apparatus.[2]
  • 1695 – humorously, a person's foot or leg (obsolete by 1830).[2]
  • 1811 – a position of admiration, as in put on a pedestal.[2] Etymonline dates the phrase to 1859.[4]
  • 1851 – a support at either end of a sideboard or large table.[2]
  • 1866 – a drawer unit supporting a kneehole desk.[2]
  • 1937 – in television, the level of the video signal during line blanking.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A base that supports a column, statue or the like, especially the part of a classical column below the shaft.[10][12][2]
  2. The base of any upright object, such as a lamp or vase.[12][2]
  3. A position of great, often excessive, admiration, as in put someone on a pedestal: Fans had placed the young striker on a pedestal.[10][2][4]
  4. Either of the two sets of drawers that support the top of a desk; a central upright support for a table or seat.[10][2]
  5. A supporting base or upright for a machine or apparatus.[2]
  6. (obsolete, 1695–1830) Humorously, a person's foot or leg, usually in the plural.[2][11]

Verb

  1. To set on or provide with a pedestal.[12][2]
  2. To raise to a high position; to exalt.[12][2]

Word family

  • unpedestal

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  11. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.