pedestal

English

Pedestal

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

pedestal (plural pedestals)

1. (architecture) The base or foot of a column, statue, vase, lamp.
   • 2018 February 28, Rene Marsh, Ross Levitt, “See HUD’s $31,000 mahogany dining set”, in CNN‎^[1], archived from the original on 2 December 2022:

     The table and two base pedestals cost more than $4,000. The pedestals are described as having “hand applied ebonized inlay with bell flowers topped by hand carved scrolls and a fluted column.”

   • 2021 December 15, Ami Vera, Artemis Moshtaghian, “Virginia to begin removal process of Robert E. Lee statue pedestal in Richmond, governor says”, in CNN‎^[2], archived from the original on 12 June 2025:

     The state reached a deal with the city to remove the 40-foot granite pedestal the Lee statue sat on for more than a century.

2. (figuratively) A place of reverence or honor.

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

   • 2012 August 31, Todd Leopold, “When the hero falls off the pedestal”, in CNN‎^[3], archived from the original on 13 October 2022:

     It’s an old, old story. We’ve all placed people on pedestals, and then, almost inevitably, they let us down. They violate our trust. They betray us. They fall off the pedestal, or we remove them.

   • 2019 October 2, Lauren Frayer, “Gandhi Is Deeply Revered, But His Attitudes On Race And Sex Are Under Scrutiny”, in NPR‎^[4], archived from the original on 6 April 2020:

     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. (photography) An item upon which television cameras are mounted.
11. 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.

Derived terms

• pedestal coil
• pedestal computer
• pedestal drill
• pedestal fan
• pedestalization
• pedestalize
• pedestal server
• pedestal telephone
• place, set, put on a pedestal
• unpedestal

Translations

the base or foot of a column, statue, vase, lamp, or the like

• Afrikaans: voetstuk, pilaarvoet
• Arabic: عَمُود (ʕamūd), حامِل (ar) (ḥāmil), مِنَصَّة (minaṣṣa)
• Armenian: պատվանդան (hy) (patvandan)
• Basque: idulki
• Belarusian: п'едэста́л m (pʺjedestál), пастаме́нт (pastamjént)
• Breton: mas (br) m
• Bulgarian: пиедестал (bg) m (piedestal)
• Catalan: pedestal (ca) m, peana (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 台座 (zh) (táizuò), 基座 (zh) (jīzuò), 座子 (zh) (zuòzi)

• Czech: podstavec (cs) m, piedestal (cs) m
• Danish: sokkel c
• Dutch: voetstuk (nl) n, sokkel (nl) m
• Esperanto: piedestalo (eo), soklo (eo)
• Finnish: jalusta (fi)
• French: piédestal (fr) m
• Galician: peaña f, pedestal (gl) m
• Georgian: კვარცხლბეკი (ḳvarcxlbeḳi), საყრდენი (saq̇rdeni), ფუძე (puʒe), საფუძველი (sapuʒveli)
• German: Sockel (de) m, Podest (de) n, Piedestal (de) n, Postament (de) n, Stand (de) m, Basis (de) f, Ständer (de) m, Gestell (de) n, Untergestell n, Bock (de) m, Auflagebock m, Auflager (de) n, Trägergerüst n, Standfuß m, Stützbock m
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: ὑπόβαθρα f (hupóbathra), βάθρον n (báthron)

• Hebrew: כַּן (he) m (kan)
• Hungarian: talapzat (hu)
• Icelandic: fótstallur m
• Ido: piedestalo (io)
• Irish: seastán m
• Italian: piedistallo (it) m
• Japanese: 台座 (ja) (だいざ, daiza)
• Latin: basis (la) f, crepīdō f
• Latvian: pjedestāls m
• Lithuanian: pjedestalas m
• Luxembourgish: Sockel m
• Macedonian: пиедестал m (piedestal)
• Manx: laan
• Norwegian: pidestall m, sokkel (no)
• Occitan: pèdestal m
• Persian: پایه (fa) (pâye)
• Polish: piedestał (pl) m, postument (pl) m
• Portuguese: pedestal (pt) m
• Romanian: piedestal (ro) n
• Russian: пьедеста́л (ru) m (pʹjedestál), постаме́нт (ru) m (postamént), цо́коль (ru) m (cókolʹ)
• Slovak: podstavec m, piedestál m
• Slovene: podstávek m
• Spanish: pedestal (es) m, peana (es) f
• Swedish: piedestal (sv) c
• Thai: แท่น (th) (tɛ̂n)
• Turkish: ayaklık (tr), duraç (tr), kaide (tr), taban (tr), oturtak

  Ottoman Turkish: سكی (seki), كرسی (kürsi)

• Ukrainian: п'єдестал m (pʺjedestal)
• Vietnamese: bệ (vi)

figuratively: a place of reverence or honor

• Hungarian: piedesztál (hu)

Verb

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

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

References

• 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 Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “pedestal”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “pedestal”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• depetals, pleadest, step deal, telepads

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian piedestallo.

Pronunciation

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

Noun

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)

Synonyms

• (base of a structure): peanya, repeu

Further reading

• “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

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /pe.desˈtaw/ [pe.desˈtaʊ̯]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /pe.desˈtaw/ [pe.desˈtaʊ̯]
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /pe.deʃˈtaw/ [pe.deʃˈtaʊ̯]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /pɨ.dɨʃˈtal/ [pɨ.ðɨʃˈtaɫ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /pɨ.dɨʃˈtal/ [pɨ.ðɨʃˈtaɫ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /pɨ.dɨʃˈta.li/

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

Noun

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)

Related terms

• pé

Further reading

• “pedestal”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “pedestal”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Romanian

Noun

pedestal n (plural pedestaluri)

1. obsolete form of piedestal

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	pedestal	pedestalul	pedestaluri	pedestalurile
genitive-dative	pedestal	pedestalului	pedestaluri	pedestalurilor
vocative	pedestalule		pedestalurilor

References

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

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from French piédestal, itself borrowed from Italian piedistallo (literally “foot stand”).

Pronunciation

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

Noun

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)

Derived terms

• en un pedestal

Further reading

• “pedestal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025