Caryatid
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head.
"She wore on the top of her head an upright circular cap that made her resemble a caryatid disburdened, and on other parts of her person strange combinations of colours, stuffs, shapes, of metal, mineral and plant."
- 2 a supporting column carved in the shape of a person wordnet
Example
More examples"She wore on the top of her head an upright circular cap that made her resemble a caryatid disburdened, and on other parts of her person strange combinations of colours, stuffs, shapes, of metal, mineral and plant."
Etymology
From Middle French cariatide, from Latin caryatides, from Ancient Greek Καρυάτιδες (Karuátides), plural of Καρυᾶτις (Karuâtis, “a priestess of Artemis, female figures used as bearing-shafts”), from καρυατίζω (karuatízō, “dance the Karyatid festival dance”) from Καρύαι (Karúai, “a town in Laconia with a temple of Artemis and a festival”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.