Wiktionary

dais

See also: daïs

English

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WOTD – 4 February 2017
 
A throne on a dais (sense 1)

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English deis, from Anglo-Norman deis, from Old French deis, dois (modern French dais), from Latin discum, accusative singular of discus (“discus, disc, quoit; dish”) (Late Latin discum (“table”)), from Ancient Greek δίσκος (dískos, “discus, disc; tray”), from δικεῖν (dikeîn, “to cast, to throw; to strike”). Cognate with Italian desco, Occitan des. Doublet of desk, disc, discus, dish, disk, and diskos.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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dais (plural daises)

  1. A raised platform in a room for a high table, a seat of honour, a throne, or other dignified occupancy, such as ancestral statues; a similar platform supporting a lectern, pulpit, etc., which may be used to speak from. [from c. 1800.]
    • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 139:
      Many of the figures, clad in mail from head to foot, were ranged above the dais; and she could almost fancy a skeleton form beneath, or that wild and fearful eyes glared through the apertures of the closed visors.
    • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
      At last we came to the head of the cave, where there was a rock daïs almost exactly similar to the one on which we had been so furiously attacked, a fact that proved to me that these daïs must have been used as altars, probably for the celebration of religious ceremonies, and more especially of rites connected with the interment of the dead. On either side of this daïs were passages leading, Billali informed me, to other caves full of dead bodies.
    • 1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 14, in Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC, page 177:
      Babbitt's party politely edged through them and into the whitewashed room, at the front of which was a dais with a red-plush throne and a pine altar painted watery blue, as used nightly by the Grand Masters and Supreme Potentates of innumerable lodges.
    • 1974 June 10, Julie Baumgold, “The Golden Dais Days of Mary Beame”, in New York, volume 7, number 23, New York, N.Y.: NYM Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 33:
      A dais wife is a woman who sits at a round table with the wives of other men who are seated on the dais. Her husband sits on the dais, raised above the other people in the room, including his wife.
    • 1999, Hanns J. Prem, editor, Hidden among the Hills: Maya Archaeology of the Northwest Yucatan Peninsula (Acta Mesoamericana; 7), 2nd edition, Markt Schwaben, Bavaria, Germany: Verlag Anton Saurwein, →ISBN, page 206, column 1:
      The daises of the Northwest Colonnade and the South Temple of the Warriors, the Mercado benches, and the benches of the Southeast Patio of the Iglesia are other instances where large groups of individuals in processions are shown.
    • 2023 August 24, Sarah Naftalis & Lauren Wells, “The Roast” (4:15 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows‎[1], season 5, episode 8, spoken by Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak):
      “We gathered all the people that love you into this one room. And then when we saw all the empty chairs, we decided to drag some randos in off the street to fill them!” [drum plays rim shot] [laughter] “So many illustrious guests here on the dais tonight. And also Colin Robinson.” [rim shot] [laughter] “He got me, I got got.”
  2. (historical, northern British) A bench, a settle, a pew.
    • 1806, “The Mer-man, and Marstig's Daughter”, in Robert Jamieson, editor, Popular Ballads and Songs, from Tradition, Manuscripts, and Scarce Editions; with Translations of Similar Pieces from the Ancient Danish Language, and a Few Originals by the Editor, volume I, Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co. Edinburgh; London: Cadell and Davies, and John Murray, →OCLC, pages 211 and 213–214:
      [page 211] The Mer-man he stept o'er ae deas, / And he has steppit over three: / "O maiden, pledge me faith and troth! / O Marstig's daughter, gang wi' me!" […] [pages 213–214] Notes on The Mer-man. […] I remember having seen in the hall of the ruined castle of Elan Stalker, in the district of Appin, an old oaken deas, which was so contrived as to serve for a sittee; at meal-times the back was turned over, rested upon the arms, and became a table; and at night the seat was raised up, and displayed a commodious bed for four persons, two and two, feet to feet, to sleep in. I was told, that this kind of deas was formerly common in the halls of great houses, where such œconomy, with respect to bed-room, was very necessary.
    • [1808, John Jamieson, “DAIS, Dess, Deas, s[ubstantive]”, in An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language: [...] In Two Volumes, volume I, Edinburgh: Printed at the University Press; for W[illiam] Creech, A[rchibald] Constable & Co., and W[illiam] Blackwood; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme, T[homas] Cadell & W. Davies, and H. D. Symonds, →OCLC:
      DAIS, Dess, Deas […] A long board, seat or bench erected against a wall. […] A pew in a church]
  3. (obsolete) An elevated table in a hall at which important people were seated; a high table. [13th–17th c.]
    • 1838, John Britton, “Dais, Deis”, in A Dictionary of the Architecture and Archaeology of the Middle Ages: Including Words Used by Ancient and Modern Authors in Treating of Architectural and Other Antiquities: With Etymology, Definition, Description, and Historical Elucidation: Also, Biographical Notices of Ancient Architects, London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, Paternoster Row; and the author, Burton Street, →OCLC, page 111, column 2:
      As the principal table was always placed upon a dais, it began very soon, by a natural abuse of words, to be called itself a Dais, and people were said to sit at the dais, instead of at the table upon the dais.
  4. The canopy over an altar, etc.

Synonyms

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Translations

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See also

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Further reading

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Anagrams

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Champenois

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Noun

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dais

  1. (Auve) finger

References

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  • Tarbé, Prosper (1851) Recherches sur l'histoire du langage et des patois de Champagne‎[2] (in French), volume 1, Reims, page 109

Dalmatian

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Etymology

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From Latin dē(n)sus. Compare Italian denso, Romanian des.

Adjective

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dais m (feminine daisa)

  1. dense
  2. thick

French

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French Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia fr

Etymology

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Inherited from Old French deis, dois, inherited from Latin discus. Doublet of disque, which was borrowed.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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dais m (plural dais)

  1. dais

Further reading

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Galician

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Verb

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dais

  1. (reintegrationist norm) second-person plural present indicative of dar

Middle English

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Noun

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dais

  1. Alternative form of deis (“dais”)

Portuguese

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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dais

  1. second-person plural present indicative of dar

Spanish

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈdais/ [ˈd̪ai̯s]
  • Rhymes: -ais
  • Syllabification: dais

Verb

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dais

  1. second-person plural present indicative of dar

Tagalog

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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daís (Baybayin spelling ᜇᜁᜐ᜔)

  1. act of moving closer to another
    Synonyms: lapit, paglapit, tabi, pagtabi, piling, pagpiling, siping, pagsiping
  2. state of being close or near to one another

Derived terms

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Adjective

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daís (Baybayin spelling ᜇᜁᜐ᜔)

  1. close or near each other
    Synonyms: magkadais, magkalapit, magkapiling

Anagrams

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White Hmong

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Etymology

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From Middle Chinese 魋 (duʌi) ("bear" or "brown bear").

Pronunciation

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Noun

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dais

  1. bear (mammal).
  2. brown bear.

References

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  • Heimbach, Ernest E. (1979) White Hmong — English Dictionary‎[3], SEAP Publications, →ISBN.

Yola

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Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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dais

  1. plural of die
    • 1867, CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 114, lines 18-19:
      Wee dwyth ye ane fose dais be gien var ee gudevare o'ye londe ye zwae,
      We behold in you one whose days are devoted to the welfare of the land you govern,

References

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  • Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 114
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