A dais or daïs ( or , American English also but sometimes considered nonstandard)dais
in the Random House Dictionarydais
in Oxford Dictionaries Online
in the American Heritage Dictionary is a raised platform at the front of a room or hall, usually for one or more speakers or honored guests. Historically, the dais was a part of the

floor A floor is the bottom surface of a room or vehicle. Floors vary from wikt:hovel, simple dirt in a cave to many layered surfaces made with modern technology. Floors may be stone, wood, bamboo, metal or any other material that can support the ex ...

at the end of a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gre ...

, raised a step above the rest of the room. On this, the master of the household or assembly (e.g. the

lord of the manor Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder of a historical rural estate. The titles date to the English Feudalism, feudal (specifically English feudal barony, baronial) system. The ...

) dined with his senior associates and friends at the high table, while the other guests occupied the lower area of the room. In medieval halls, there was generally a deeply recessed

bay window A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. A bow window is a form of bay with a curve rather than angular facets; an oriel window is a bay window that does not touch the g ...

at one or both ends of the dais, which provided retirement or greater privacy than the open hall. The dais area often had its own doorway for admission from the master's chambers, whereas most of the guests entered through a doorway leading into the main area of the hall. At

military parade A military parade is a formation of military personnels whose movement is restricted by close-order manoeuvering known as Drill team, drilling or marching. Large military parades are today held on major holidays and military events around the ...

s, the dais is the raised, sometimes covered, platform from where the troops are reviewed, addresses are made, and salutes are taken. It can also have stairs and a throne. In

life drawing A figure drawing is a drawing of the human form in any of its various shapes and Human positions, postures, using any of the drawing Drawing#Media, media. The term can also refer to the act of producing such a drawing. The degree of representatio ...

rooms of

art school An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on practice and related theory in the visual arts and design. This includes fine art – especially illustration, painting, contemporary art, sculpture, and graphic design. T ...

s, the platform where the

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided in ...

poses for the students is sometimes referred to as the dais. A dais for giving

speeches This list of speeches includes those that have gained notability in English or in English translation. The earliest listings may be approximate dates. Before the 1st century *c.570 BC : The Buddha gives his first sermon, '' Dhammacakkappava ...

is called a rostrum.

Etymology

The first written record of the word ''dais'' in English is from the thirteenth century. It stopped being used in English around 1600 but was revived by antiquarians in the early 19th century with the

disyllabic A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...

pronunciation. It comes from the Anglo-French ''deis'', meaning "table" or "platform", which comes from Medieval Latin ''discus'', meaning "table", earlier "disc" or "dish".

References

External links

* * Floors Interior design {{architecturalelement-stub

Etymology

See also

References

External links