Some newspapers, in reporting on the presidential debates, say that each candidate stood at a podium. Other say lectern.

What's the difference?

Well, a podium used to be something upon which one stood, like the smallish platform used by a conductor, but it has now come to mean the same as lectern: i.e., a stand holding something to be read from. (cf. also dais.) A podium is similar to, but smaller than, a bema (plural bemata) which is used in both Judaism and Eastern Orthodoxy to refer to stage-like elevated areas. The word is from the Greek, as is podium, but not lectern (from Latin via French). What is the plural of podium? Podia? Podiums? K. and B. weren't really reading, they were standing there and debating. Maybe that's why the media chose podium.

A podium is the platform on which the speaker stands. A lectern is a stand for books, papers, etc, from which the speaker reads. They are two completely different things; usually the lectern is set up on the podium in front of the speaker.

The AH gives the lectern meaning. Interestingly enough, pew which most relate to sitting is cognate with podium.

Since podium appears to be derived from pes (foot), and they were standing, it makes more sense to me.

Note: podium is from the Greek, derived from pous (podis), and not from Latin pes (pedis), though the two words have the same meaning 'foot' and are cognate. In fact foot is cognate, too. Making sense and making language have little to do with one another. Not my belief, just my observation.

I was thinking that I'd describe them both as standing on shaky ground . . . or perhaps with their heads in the clouds . . . or possibly with one foot on the platform and the other on the train?

But I guess that's a different position altogether.

Podiums? K. and B. weren't really reading, they were standing there and debating. Maybe that's why the media chose podium.

The debates bring up another word question. I heard an analyst say that it really wasn't a debate; it was merely a question and answer session. When I looked up debate, I think he might be right: "To engage in argument by discussing opposing points." After all, they didn't really discuss opposing points, did they"? They discussed their views on points. Wouldn't debating be to take an issue, such as "abortion," and to argue both sides of it?

Or, am I just being too persnickety again?

I heard an analyst say that it really wasn't a debate;

It was a media event. But, yes, it didn't seem like a debate to me.

From The Writer's Art, by James J. Kilpatrick:

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Clyde Lester of Augusta, Ga., gives the court an opportunity to vent a pet peeve of its own. He asks the court to distinguish among such familiar nouns as dais, lectern, podium and rostrum, not to mention stage, pulpit, platform, soapbox and stump. The court will oblige.

A dais (pronounced day-is) is a raised platform in a large hall. A lectern is a piece of furniture, either stand-up or desktop, usually with a slanted surface, where a speaker stands or sits to deliver a speech. A podium -- the most abused of all the terms -- is the little platform on which a musical conductor stands. The editors of New World Dictionary disgracefully define a podium as a dais, which it emphatically is not. A rostrum is any kind of stage used for public speaking. A pulpit is the usually enclosed space from which is sermon is delivered.

On these easy distinctions the court speaks from its soapbox or its stump -- from any old place it can holler that a lectern is a lectern, a lectern, a lectern!

COPYRIGHT 2001 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE

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I heartily recommend Kilpatrick's columns, "The Writer's Art" and "Covering the Courts".

The Advanced Public Speaking Institute says under podium, "Many people call a lectern a podium. This is technically incorrect, but very common." But it doesn't say what a podium is, technically. I don't know anything about this site, so I can't give any opinion on how good it is.

Tinman

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Originally posted by jheem:
Note: _podium_ is from the Greek, derived from _pous_ (_podis_), and not from Latin _pes_ (_pedis_), though the two words have the same meaning 'foot' and are cognate. In fact _foot_ is cognate, too. Making sense and making language have little to do with one another. Not my belief, just my observation.

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Welllll, jheem, my Latin's very rusty, but I seem to remember suffering from a severe case of pes in oris

Your candy dispenser is circling Neptune? Oh, you poor dear!

Jo, you remind me of an old New Yorker cartoon depicting a stuffy waiter in a French restaurant saying to the would-be patron, "Now that you have told me to unsaddle the horses, the innkeeper has been struck by lightning, would you care to try ordering en Anglais?"

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....... I seem to remember suffering from a severe case of _pes in oris_

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WHERE did you want to put your PES??? In my WHAT?

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Originally posted by Caterwauller:

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....... I seem to remember suffering from a severe case of _pes in oris_

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WHERE did you want to put your PES??? In my WHAT?

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Well, I promise to wash first! Actually this is also known as "accidental yoga." It's the postition wherein one places both feet in one's mouth simultaneously.

Okey dokey! Thanks for the clarification, Asa! I love the phrase!

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Originally posted by Asa Lovejoy:
Actually this is also known as "accidental yoga." It's the postition wherein one places both feet in one's mouth simultaneously.

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The technical term is dontopedalogy.

But he was talking about BOTH feet! Shouldn't it be bidontopedalogy??? Or would it be bilateral dontopedalogy?

Awww heck with it - let's just say screwed up.

There was an interesting piece in QT of the Chicago Sun Times today. Normally, I would think it coincidental, until I read the last line. Somebody has been reading wordcraft!

"Bill Gershon, a Skokie reader, writes: 'When did a LECTERN become a PODIUM? One stands on a podium and at a lectern. A podium is a small platform. A lectern is a speaker's stand (or desk). Most print and broadcast journalists don't seem to know the difference.'
And it is chaise longue, not chaise lounge, by the way."

Now Bill Gershon may have come to that question on his own. BUT, do you think QT came to chaise longue on his own?