online medical dictionary | definition of pedestal

1. The base or foot of a column, statue, vase, lamp, or the like; the part on which an upright work stands. It consists of three parts, the base, the die or dado, and the cornice or surbase molding.

2. An iron socket, or support, for the foot of a brace at the end of a truss where it rests on a pier. Pedestal coil, a group of connected straight pipes arranged side by side and one above another, used in a radiator.

Origin: Sp. Pedestal; cf. F. Piedestal, It. Piedestallo; fr. L. Es, pedis, foot + OHG. Stal standing place, station, place, akin to E. Stall. See Foot, and Stall, and Footstall.

(01 Mar 1998)