rostrum

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin rōstrum (“beak, snout”), from rōd(ō) (“gnaw”) + -trum, from Proto-Indo-European *reh₁d- + *-trom. The pulpit sense is a back-formation from the name of the Roman Rōstra, the platforms in the Forum where politicians made speeches. The Rōstra were decorated with (and named for) the beaks (prows) of ships from naval victories.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɒstɹəm/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɑstɹəm/, /ˈɹɔs-/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: (Received Pronunciation) -ɒstɹəm, (General American) -ɑstɹəm
• Hyphenation: ros‧trum

Noun

rostrum (plural rostra or rostrums)

1. A dais, pulpit, or similar platform for a speaker, conductor, or other performer.

   Synonyms: dais, pulpit

   • 1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 27, in Babbitt:

     He saw a crowd listening to a man who was talking from the rostrum of a kitchen-chair.

2. A platform for a film or television camera.
3. The projecting prow of a rowed warship, such as a trireme.
4. (zoology) The beak.
5. (zoology) The beak-shaped projection on the head of insects such as weevils.
6. (zoology) The snout of a dolphin.
7. (anatomy) The oral or nasal region of a human used for anatomical location (i.e. rostral).

Further reading

• rostrum on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology

From rōd(ō) (“to gnaw”) +‎ -trum, from Proto-Indo-European *reh₁d- + *-trom. Originally a bird's beak or animal's snout, but later extended to objects with a similar shape. Doublet of rāstrum.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈroːs.trum/, [ˈroːs̠t̪rʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈros.trum/, [ˈrɔst̪rum]

Noun

rōstrum n (genitive rōstrī); second declension

1. bill or beak of a bird

   Synonym: beccus

   • c. 600 CE – 625 CE, Isidorus Hispalensis, Etymologiae 12.7.33:

     Ībis avis Nīlī flūminis, quae sēmetipsam purgat, rōstrō in ānum aquam fundēns. Haec serpentium ōva vēscitur, grātissimam ex eīs ēscam nīdīs suīs dēportāns.

     The ibis is a bird of the river Nile, which cleans itself by pouring water into its anus with its beak. It devours the eggs of snakes, carrying from them to its nests the most welcome food.

2. snout or muzzle of an animal
   • 9 CE, Ovid, The Ibis 143–152:

     Sīve ego, quod nōlim, longīs cōnsūmptus ab annīs,
         sīve manū factā morte solūtus erō,
     sīve per inmēnsās iactābor naufragus undās,
         nostraque longinquus viscera piscis edet,
     sīve peregrīnae carpent mea membra volucrēs,
         sīve meō tinguent sanguine rōstra lupī,
     sīve aliquis dignātus erit suppōnere terrae
         et dare plēbēiō corpus ināne rogō,
     quicquid erō, Stygiīs ērumpere nītar ab ōrīs,
         et tendam gelidās ultor in ōra manūs.

     Whether I shall be consumed by the long years, which I do not want,
         whether I shall be set free by a death caused by a hand,
     whether I shall be thrown shipwrecked about the immense waves
         and a fish from far away lands my guts will eat,
     whether wandering birds my limbs should rip,
         whether wolves will stain their snouts with my blood,
     whether someone will be dignified to lay on the ground
         and give to a plebeian pyre my useless body,
     whatever I shall be, I shall strive to break from the banks of the Styx
         and I'll hold my icy hands in your face as an avenger.

3. (nautical) prow of a ship
4. (usually in the plural) a stage or platform for speaking in the forum

References

• “rostrum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “rostrum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• rostrum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• rostrum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to mount the rostra: in contionem (in rostra) escendere (only of Romans)
    
  • to charge, ram a boat: navem rostro percutere
    
• “rostrum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “rostrum”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin