Lectern

A lectern is a standing reading desk with a slanted top, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a <a href="/facts/Scripture/H2HjQEYv">scripture</a> reading, <a href="/facts/Lecture/doDfvaSE">lecture</a>, or <a href="/facts/Sermon/AT5m7TaU">sermon</a>. A lectern is usually attached to a stand or affixed to some other form of support. To facilitate eye contact and improve posture when facing an audience, lecterns may have adjustable height and slant. People reading from a lectern, called <a href="/facts/Lector/Lj6REVDq">lectors</a>, generally do so while standing.
The word has its origins in the medieval <a href="/facts/Latin/pM3Kge85">Latin</a> term lectrum, related to legere which means 'to read'. In pre-modern usage, the word lectern was used to refer specifically to the "reading desk or stand ... from which the Scripture lessons (<a href="/facts/Lection/8UKA5UWT">lectiones</a>) ... are chanted or read." One 1905 dictionary states that "the term is properly applied only to the class mentioned [church book stands] as independent of the <a href="/facts/Pulpit/0lAyVbtm">pulpit</a>." By the 1920s, however, the term was being used in a broader sense; for example, in reference to a memorial service in <a href="/facts/Carnegie_Hall/7yfgmP7t">Carnegie Hall</a>, it was stated that "the lectern from which the speakers talked was enveloped in black." Lecterns are frequently also referred to as podiums, a word which can also refer to an elevated platform upon which a lectern is placed, derived from the Latin root pod-, meaning 'feet'.

Lectern open-in-new

Lectern