pillar n.

c. 1200, piler, "a column or columnar mass, narrow in proportion to height, either weight-bearing or free-standing," from Old French piler "pillar, column, pier" (12c., Modern French pilier) and directly from Medieval Latin pilare, from Latin pila "pillar, stone barrier," a word of unknown etymology. The figurative sense of "prop or support of an institution or community" is recorded from early 14c. Related: Pillared.

In medieval architecture often made so as to give the appearance of several shafts around a central core; "by architects often distinguished from column, inasmuch as it may be of any shape in section, and is not subordinated to the rules of classic architecture" [Century Dictionary].

Phrase pillar to post "from one thing to another without apparent or definite purpose" is attested from c. 1600, late 15c. as post to pillar, mid-15c. as pillar and post; but the exact meaning is obscure. Earliest references seem to allude to tennis, but post and pillar is recorded as the name of a game of some sort c. 1450. The theory that the expression is from pillar as the raised ground at the center of a manège ring around which a horse turns is unlikely because that sense seem to date only to 18c.

The Pillars of Hercules are the two hills on opposite sides of the Straits of Gibraltar, Abyla in Africa and Calpe in Europe, said to have been torn asunder by Hercules.

词汇	pillar
词源	pillar n. c. 1200, piler, "a column or columnar mass, narrow in proportion to height, either weight-bearing or free-standing," from Old French piler "pillar, column, pier" (12c., Modern French pilier) and directly from Medieval Latin pilare, from Latin pila "pillar, stone barrier," a word of unknown etymology. The figurative sense of "prop or support of an institution or community" is recorded from early 14c. Related: Pillared. In medieval architecture often made so as to give the appearance of several shafts around a central core; "by architects often distinguished from column, inasmuch as it may be of any shape in section, and is not subordinated to the rules of classic architecture" [Century Dictionary]. Phrase pillar to post "from one thing to another without apparent or definite purpose" is attested from c. 1600, late 15c. as post to pillar, mid-15c. as pillar and post; but the exact meaning is obscure. Earliest references seem to allude to tennis, but post and pillar is recorded as the name of a game of some sort c. 1450. The theory that the expression is from pillar as the raised ground at the center of a manège ring around which a horse turns is unlikely because that sense seem to date only to 18c. The Pillars of Hercules are the two hills on opposite sides of the Straits of Gibraltar, Abyla in Africa and Calpe in Europe, said to have been torn asunder by Hercules. Entries linking to pillar pilaster n. "a square column or pillar," 1570s, from French pilastre (1540s), from Italian pilastro, from Medieval Latin pilastrum (mid-14c.), from pila, "buttress, pile" (from Latin pila, see pillar) + Latin -aster, suffix "expressing incomplete resemblance" [Barnhart]. pile n.1 early 15c., "heap or stack of something," usually consisting of an indefinite number of separate objects arranged in a more or less regular conical or pyramidal form, from Old French pile "a heap, a stack," and directly from Latin pila "a pillar," also "stone barrier, pier" (see pillar). The sense development in Latin would have been from "pier, harbor wall of stones," to "something heaped up." Middle English pile also could mean "pillar supporting something, pier of a bridge" (mid-15c.). In English, the verb in the sense of "to heap (up)" is recorded from c.1400. Middle English also had a noun pile meaning "castle, tower, stronghold (late 14c.), which persisted in a sense of "large building." OED regards this as a separate word, of doubtful origin, but other sources treat them as the same. pillory n. "frame of wood erected on a post or pole with holes into which were put the head and hands of an offender who was thus exposed for public derision and abuse," mid-14c., pillorie (attested in Anglo-Latin from late 12c., in surnames from mid-13c.), from Old French pilori "pillory" (mid-12c.), which is related to Medieval Latin pilloria, but all are of uncertain origin. Perhaps a diminutive of Latin pila "pillar, stone barrier" (see pillar), but OED finds this proposed derivation "phonologically unsuitable." updated on December 31, 2021
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pillar n.

Entries linking to pillar