PILE

This article appears in Volume V21, Page 603 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: PIG-POL

PILE , an homonymous word, of which the main branches are (1) a heap, through Fr. from pila, pillar; (2) a heavy beam used in making

foundations

FOUNDATIONS

, literally a pointed stake, an adaptation of Lat. pilum, javelin; (3) the nap on cloth, Lat. pilus,

hair

HAIR (a word common to Teutonic languages)

. In the first branch the Lat. pila (for pigla, from root of pangere, to fasten) meant also a pier or mole of stone, hence any

mass

of masonry, as in Fr. pile. In English usage the word chiefly means a " heap " or "

mass

" of objects laid one on the top of the other, such as the heap of faggots or other combustible material on which a dead

body

BODY

is cremated, " funeral pile," or on which a living person is burnt as a

punishment

PUNISHMENT (from Lat. punire, to punish, from poena, punishment, Gr. 7rocvil)

. It also is applied to a large and lofty building, and specifically, to a stand of arms, " piled in military fashion, and to the

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of plates, " galvanic " or " voltaic piles," in an electric battery. The modern " head and tail " of a coin was formerly "

cross

CROSS

and pile," Fr. croix et pile, in modern Fr. face et pile. In the older apparatus for minting the die for the

reverse

REVERSE

was placed on a small upright pillar, pile, the other on a puncheon known as a " trussell " (Fr. trousseau). The common name of the disease of haemorrhoids (q.v.) or " piles " is probably an extension of this word, in the sense of mass, swelling, but may be referred to the Lat. pila, ball. The name of the pilum, or heavy javelin (lit. pounder, pestle, from pinsere, pisere, to beat), the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

weapon of the ancient Roman infantry, was adopted into many Teutonic languages in the sense of dart or arrow, cf. Germ. Pfeil; in English it was chiefly used of a heavy stake with one end sharpened, and driven into swampy ground or in the bed of a river to form the first

foundations

FOUNDATIONS

for a building; the primitive lake-dwellings built on " piles " are also known as " pile-dwellings." For the use of piles in building see FOUNDATIONS and BRIDGES. In heraldry a charge represented by two lines

meeting

MEETING (from " to meet," to come together, assemble, 0. Eng. metals ; cf. Du. moeten, Swed. mota, Goth. gamotjan, &c., derivatives of the Teut. word for a meeting, seen in O. Eng. Wit, moot, an assembly of the people; cf. witanagemot)

in the form of an arrow head is known as a " pile," a direct adaptation probably of the Lat. pilum. The division of this intricate word, followed here, is that adopted by the New English Dictionary; other etymologists (e.g. Skeat, Etym. Diet., 1898) arrange the words and their Latin originals somewhat differently.

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