pilaster

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French pilastre, recorded in French from 1545,^[2][3][4] from Italian pilastro, recorded from the 13th century,^[2][3][5] compare Medieval Latin pilastrum, found in an Italian source of 1159.^[2][4] The further origin is uncertain and disputed.^[2] Most dictionaries derive the Italian word from pila (“buttress, pile”) or its source Latin pīla (“pillar”), the source of pile and pillar, with the suffix -aster, which expresses partial resemblance.^{[2][3][4][6][7]} Some scholars regard that analysis as only a folk-etymological reshaping:^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged takes the Italian word as probably a modification of parastata, from a Greek word meaning "one that stands beside", influenced by pila and -aster,^[8] and the American Heritage Dictionary allows a blend of pīla with the Late Latin word for a pilaster.^[9] Barnhart compares the Latin suffix in filiaster (“stepson”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A square or rectangular column projecting from a wall or set on either side of a doorway, usually with a base and capital: 1573, in a letter among the papers of Lord De L'Isle and Dudley.^[2][8] Barnhart dates the word to 1575,^[3] and Etymonline to the 1570s.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word was formerly applied also to the square pier of an arch or bridge.^[2][7] From 1589, in Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie, it was used of anything shaped like a pilaster,^[2] and the Shorter Oxford records a sense of a cylindrical shape in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.^[7] Johnson (1755) described it as a square column sometimes standing free but more often set within a wall, showing only a fourth or fifth of its thickness.^[10] Merriam-Webster Unabridged distinguishes the architectural pilaster, structurally a pier but treated as a column and projecting a third of its width or less, from a purely decorative and often carved member of the same shape in furniture.^[8] The adjective pilastered is recorded from the late 17th century.^[7]

Timeline

• 1573 – a square or rectangular column projecting from a wall.^[2][8]
• 1589 – something resembling a pilaster in form or function.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shallow rectangular column attached to the face of a wall, usually with a capital and base, either load-bearing or purely decorative: Two fluted pilasters framed the bank's front door.^[11][12][8]
2. A similar ornamental upright on a piece of furniture, often carved.^[8]

Word family

• pilastered

Related words

• pillar
• pile

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin