PILLAR (0. Fr. piler, Mod. pilier,

See also:

• LATE

Late

See also:

• LAT

Lat. pilare, from pila,

See also:

• COLUMN (Lat. columna)

column)  , an isolated upright structure, of narrow width in relation to its height, which is either employed as a support for a superincumbent load of some sort or is set up for commemorative or ornamental purposes . In the first sense the word has many common applications, as to columns supporting the girders of awarehouse floor or the deckbeams of a ship, to the single central support or pedestal of a table, machine-tool, &c., and to the masses of coal which the miner leaves in certain methods of working as supports to the roof (see Cord); it is also used figuratively of persons in such phrases as a " pillar of the state." In architecture it has strictly the second sense . The column erected in honour of Diocletian at Alexandria is known as Pompey's pillar, and the so-called columns of Trajan and Antoninus are in reality pillars, performing no structural function beyond that of carrying a statue . In India the only example is the iron pillar at Delhi, which is an extraordinary specimen of the iron-worker's art considering the remote date at which it was made . Up to the middle of the 19th century the term " pillar " was employed to designate the masses of masonry in a church, which carry the arcades, but now the term "pier" is invariably adopted in preference .