Other forms: obelisks
An obelisk is a tall four-sided stone pillar tapering to a point. An Egyptian obelisk, raise the obelisk, the obelisk on the square.
The Egyptians cut them from single blocks of granite, and moving one was the engineering feat of its age. Rome holds more standing Egyptian obelisks than Egypt does, having carried them off by ship.
1nounobeliskA tall four-sided stone pillar tapering to a point.
“An ancient Egyptian obelisk stands in the middle of the square.”
obelisk is a monument.
Greek obeliskos means a little spit or needle, from obelos, a spit.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʷelH-
Ancient Greek
ὀβελίσκος
Latin
obeliscus — obelisk
Middle French
obelisque
English, today
obelisk
Built from
From Middle French obelisque, from Latin obeliscus (“obelisk”), from Ancient Greek ὀβελίσκος, diminutive of ὀβελός (“needle”). Compare obelus.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA