Other forms: pillars
A pillar is a tall upright support, round or square. A stone pillar, pillars of the temple, lean on the pillar.
It works in compression only, which is why stone suits it and why classical building is a system of posts and beams. A pillar of the community is somebody who holds it up. From pillar to post means driven back and forth with no result.
1nounpillarA tall upright support.
“The roof of the old temple rests on rows of marble pillars.”
pillar is a support.
Old French pilier comes from Latin pila, a pillar or pier. Pile, in the sense of a driven post, is a relative.
Latin
pila — a pillar, pier, mole
Vulgar Latin
*pilāre — a pillar
Old French
pilier
Middle English
piler
English, today
pillar
From Middle English piler, from Old French pilier, from Medieval Latin - or Vulgar Latin pilāre (“a pillar”), from Latin pila (“a pillar, pier, mole”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA