rostrum [M16th] A rostrum is now a raised platform on which a person stands to make a speech, but it was originally part of a ship. It is an English use of a Latin word meaning ‘beak’, which came from rodere ‘to gnaw’. In the days of the Roman Empire the part of the Forum in Rome which was used as a platform for public speakers was decorated with the ‘beaks’ or pointed prows of captured enemy warships. See also rodent, root.