Column - Etymology, Origin & Meaning (original) (raw)

Origin and history of column

mid-15c., "a pillar, long, cylindrical architectural support," also "vertical division of a page," from Old French colombe (12c., Modern French colonne "column, pillar"), from Latin columna "pillar," collateral form of columen "top, summit," from PIE root *kel- (2) "to be prominent; hill."

In the military sense "formation of troops narrow in front and extending back" from 1670s, opposed to a line, which is extended in front and thin in depth. Sense of "matter written for a newspaper" (the contents of a column of type) dates from 1785.

Entries linking to column

"having the form of a column; of or pertaining to a column," 1728, from Late Latin columnaris "rising in the form of a pillar," from columna "column" (see column).

1915, "one who writes serially for publication in a newspaper or magazine," from column in the newspaper sense + -ist.

The successful Columnist puts his own personality into his column. It is not a case of impersonal jesting and the heaping up of cold, blue-lit diamonds of wit. The reader likes the column because it reveals a daily insight into another man's soul—and he finds this other soul likeable. [C.L. Edson, "The Gentle Art of Columning," 1920]

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to be prominent," also "hill."

It might form all or part of: colonel; colonnade; colophon; column; culminate; culmination; excel; excellence; excellent; excelsior; hill; holm.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit kutam "top, skull;" Latin collis "hill," columna "projecting object," cellere "raise;" Greek kolōnos "hill," kolophōn "summit;" Lithuanian kalnas "mountain," kalnelis "hill," kelti "raise;" Old English hyll "hill," Old Norse hallr "stone," Gothic hallus "rock."

More to explore

[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 ](/word/pillar "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 ")

[Middle English, from Old French table, tabel "board, square panel, plank; writing table; picture; food, fare" (11c.), and also a survival of late Old English tabele "flat and relatively thin surface of some hard material," especially "writing tablet (of slabs of wood, etc.,), gam](/word/table "Middle English, from Old French table, tabel "board, square panel, plank; writing table; picture; food, fare" (11c.), and also a survival of late Old English tabele "flat and relatively thin surface of some hard material," especially "writing tablet (of slabs of wood, etc.,), gam")

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