Word of the Day

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.

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