In ancient Rome it referred to a raised platform; since the 1940s it has also been used as a verb. So is it OK now to podium? Have you been podiuming this week? Depending on your point of view, this is either winning a medal (and so stepping on to the podium) at the Olympics, or it is jumping up and down and shouting hoarsely into an uncaring gale that “podium is not a verb”. In ancient Rome the podium was the raised platform around the arena that seated the emperor and other VIPs (ultimately from the Greek _podion_, literally “little foot”, meaning “base” or “pedestal”). Adopted into English in the 18th century, a podium was the projecting base of a wall or column, or simply a plinth, and latterly a raised platform or lectern. It was applied to the familiar three-tiered sporting structure only in 1948. In the very same year, however, it was also used as a (non-sporting) verb in a Portland newspaper: “I podiumed as I had never podiumed before, because Eleanor was on the dais next to me.” Continue reading...
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