Other forms: piers
A pier is a long platform built out over water on legs. Walk along the pier, the end of the pier, fish off the pier.
The British seaside pier is a specific institution: a Victorian pleasure pier with amusements, a theatre at the end and a long history of burning down. A working pier is for boats to tie up at. In building, a pier is also a solid support holding up an arch or a bridge, which is the oldest sense. Note the homophone peer, which means an equal or to look hard, and that end-of-the-pier is a fixed adjective meaning cheerfully old-fashioned entertainment.
1nounpierA long platform built out over water.
“The pier is closed for repairs until spring.”
2nounsolidA solid support for an arch or a bridge.
“The middle pier is the one that needs underpinning.”
pier is a platform or support.
Also accepted in games: jetty
Middle English pere meant a bridge support, from Medieval Latin pera and ultimately Latin petra, a stone. A pier was made of stone before it was made of iron, and the pleasure pier is the newest and least stony member of the family.
Middle English
pere — bridge pillar, breakwater
English, today
pier
From Middle English pere (“bridge pillar, breakwater”). Middle English pere (“bridge pillar, breakwater”), from either Anglo-Norman pere (“stone”) or Old French piere (fro-nor pire, from either Latin petricus or pēra "satchel"); compare Medieval Latin pira.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA