Dais

Word of the Day for Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Dais \DEY-is, DAHY-, deys\, noun:

a raised platform, as at the front of a room, for a lectern, throne, seats of honor, etc.

Some spoke to the man on the dais and were sent through the door behind him and up a turnpike stair.
-- George R. R. Martin, A Feast for Crows, 2005

It was set upon a dais that Jemma was quite sure hadn't been there the day before.
-- Chris Adrian, The Children's Hospital, 2006

The sense of dais as a platform entered English from the modern French word of the same spelling. An earlier sense of the word as a "raised table" briefly entered English from an Old French word, but the more modern definition has become the predominant sense.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com