pedestal

Forms

pedestal m (plural pedestales)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French piédestal, from Italian piedistallo, a compound of piede (“foot”) and stallo (“support”), a word of Germanic origin.^[2][3][4] Corominas holds that the sound of the word shows it came through French rather than straight from Italian.^[2] Bénaben and Gómez de Silva describe the same route.^[5][6] Gómez de Silva and Wiktionary analyse the Italian word as a phrase with di (“of”), literally “foot of support”.^[5][6][1]

The DHLF dates the Italian word, also written piedestallo, to before 1450.^[7] In French it appears once as pied d’estrail in the 15th century, as pedestal and pied destal in 1526–1537, and in its modern form from 1545.^[7] García de Diego lists it among the descendants of Latin pes (“foot”).^[8]

Covarrubias in 1611 thought the word came from the Latin for “foot”.^[9] The Academy derived it from Italian in 1899, and Alemany in 1917 from the Latin word and Old High German stal (“place, seat”).^[9][10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas, following Terlingen, dates the word to 1539, and the CDH has a building contract of that year with pedestales as the bases of figures on a grille: en los primeros pedestales de los lados.^[2][12] An anonymous treatise on architecture dedicated to Prince Philip, dated 1537–1556, uses it for three pedestals set on a pinnacle.^[12] Most of the early records are contracts for altarpieces in Zaragoza, where pedestales carry the columns.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades defined the pedestal as the first of the three main parts of a classical order, the solid block on which the column stands, and added the base of a cross and a figurative sense, the foundation on which something rests.^[13] The Academy's 1817 edition widened the first sense to a base for a column, statue or similar object.^[14] Modern Spanish uses en un pedestal for someone held in very high esteem, as French mettre sur un piédestal does.^[4][15][5] In several Latin American countries it is also a stand for a microphone or similar device.^[16]

Timeline

• 1537–1556 – an anonymous architectural treatise for Prince Philip uses the word.^[12]
• 1539 – a building contract has pedestales; this is Corominas's date.^[2][12]
• 1545 – French piédestal takes its modern form.^[7][2]
• 1587 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City, in a naval context.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as the base of what is built on it.^[9]
• 1737 – Autoridades records it as a term of architecture, with the figurative sense.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (architecture) A pedestal: a solid block, cylindrical or box-shaped, that supports a column, statue or the like.^[4][1]
2. A base or stand, especially of a cross.^[4]
3. (figurative) A foundation on which something rests or by which it is reached.^[4]
4. (Latin America) A stand for a microphone or other device.^[16]

Related words

• pie
• French piédestal
• Italian piedistallo

Usage notes

Tener or poner a alguien en un pedestal means to hold someone in very high regard.^[4][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 530
3. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pie
4. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. pedestal
5. ^ a b c Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. pedestal
6. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 533
7. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. piédestal
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4969
9. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1202
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 756
11. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1283
12. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. pedestal
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 181
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 652
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pedestal
16. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. pedestal
17. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. pedestal