pedestal

Borrowed from Middle French piédestal, itself borrowed from Italian piedistallo (literally “foot stand”). Spelling influenced by Latin pēs, pedem.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛdɪstəl/, (by conflation with stool) /ˈpɛdɪsˌtuːl/

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pedestal (plural pedestals)

1. (architecture) The base or foot of a column, statue, vase, lamp.
2. (figuratively) A place of reverence or honor.

   He has put his mother on a pedestal. You can't say a word against her.

   • 2019 October 2, Lauren Frayer, “Gandhi Is Deeply Revered, But His Attitudes On Race And Sex Are Under Scrutiny”, in NPR‎^[1]:

     But India is also where the Mahatma may have fallen furthest from the pedestal.

3. (rail transport) A casting secured to the frame of a truck of a railcar and forming a jaw for holding a journal box.
4. (machining) A pillow block; a low housing.
5. (bridge building) An iron socket, or support, for the foot of a brace at the end of a truss where it rests on a pier.
6. (steam heating) a pedestal coil, group of connected straight pipes arranged side by side and one above another, used in a radiator.
7. (telecommunications) A ground-level housing for a passive connection point for underground cables.
8. (electronics) The measured value when no input signal is given.
9. (aviation) The central part of the cockpit, between the pilots, where various controls are located.
10. The tough protuberant pad covering a dromedary's sternum, which, when the camel lies down, causes the abdomen to be slightly above the hot ground.

pedestal (third-person singular simple present pedestals, present participle pedestaling or pedestalling, simple past and past participle pedestaled or pedestalled)

1. To set or support on (or as if on) a pedestal.

• Category:pedestals on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• “pedestal”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “pedestal”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “pedestal”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• depetals, pleadest, step deal, telepads

Borrowed from Italian piedestallo.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [pə.ðəsˈtal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [pe.ðesˈtal]

pedestal m (plural pedestals)

1. (architecture) pedestal (the base or foot of a column, statue, vase, lamp, or the like)
2. (figuratively) pedestal (a place of reverence or honor)

• (base of a structure): peanya, repeu

• “pedestal”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: pe‧des‧tal

pedestal m (plural pedestais)

1. (architecture) pedestal (the base or foot of a column, statue, vase, lamp, or the like)
2. (figuratively) pedestal (a place of reverence or honor)

• pé

pedestal n (plural pedestaluri)

1. obsolete form of piedestal

• pedestal in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN

• IPA^(key): /pedesˈtal/ [pe.ð̞esˈt̪al]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: pe‧des‧tal

pedestal m (plural pedestales)

1. (architecture) pedestal (the base or foot of a column, statue, vase, lamp, or the like)
2. (figuratively) pedestal (a place of reverence or honor)

• “pedestal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024