Whys & Wherefores

Sir which is right, 'Dias' or 'Dais'? :Dr.V.Venkatesh, Adilabad Please explain.If your idea of 'Dias' is any raised platform located either inside or outside a room or enclosure, often for dignified occupancy, as at the front of a lecture hall or sanctuary, then you are wrong.

It is in fact Dais, not Dias. Never use the word dias for the platform to deliver the speech or lecture. At military parades, the dais is the raised, sometimes covered, platform from where the troops are reviewed, addresses made and salutes taken.

Historically, the dais was a part of the floor at the end of a medieval hall, raised a step above the rest of the room. On this the lord of the manor dined with his intimates at the high table, apart from the followers and servants.

In medieval halls there was generally a deep recessed bay window at one or at each end of the dais, supposed to be for retirement or greater privacy than the open hall could afford. In life drawing rooms of art schools, the platform where the model poses for the students is sometimes referred to as the dais.

The word dais was first used in the thirteenth century. It comes from the Anglo-French deis, meaning "table" or "platform". Let's use the word in a sentence: The mayor and the governor will sit on the dais until it is time for them to speak.

Or, When the principal calls your name, you should walk across the dais and accept your diploma. Another example:The announcer asked the contest winner to come onto the dais to accept her award. The word Dias is the Modern Greek name for god Zeus. Also, Dias is a city of ancient Lycia.