Other forms: daes, daises
A dais is a low platform for a throne or a high table. On the dais, step up to the dais, the dais at the far end.
It raises the important people so that everybody can see them, which is its entire function, and in a medieval hall the high table stood on one. It is pronounced with two syllables, and the word came from the Latin for a disc or a table.
1noundaisA low platform for a throne or a high table.
“The bride and groom sat on a dais at the end of the hall.”
dais is a platform.
Old French deis comes from Latin discus, a disc or table. The sense moved from the table to its platform.
Ancient Greek
δίσκος — discus, disc; tray
Latin
discum
Old French
deis
Anglo-Norman
deis
Middle English
deis
English, today
dais
Built from
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”) (Latin discum (“table”)), from Ancient Greek δίσκος (“discus, disc; tray”), from δικεῖν (“to cast, to throw; to strike”). Cognate with Italian desco, Occitan des. a doublet of desk and disc and discus and dish and disk and diskos.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA