Word of the Day Archive
Wednesday May 8, 2013
dais \DEY-is, DAHY-, deys\
, noun:
a raised platform, as at the front of a room, for a lectern, throne, seats of honor, etc.
Some spoke to the man on the dais and were sent through the door behind him and up a turnpike stair.
-- George R. R. Martin, A Feast for Crows, 2005
It was set upon a dais that Jemma was quite sure hadn't been there the day before.
-- Chris Adrian, The Children's Hospital, 2006
The sense of dais as a platform entered English from the modern French word of the same spelling. An earlier sense of the word as a "raised table" briefly entered English from an Old French word, but the more modern definition has become the predominant sense.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for dais
