caryatid

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a sculpted female figure used as an architectural support in place of a column or pillar

   Each marble caryatid supported the porch entablature on her head.

Through French and Latin caryatides from Greek Karyatides, 'women of Karyai,' associated with ritual dancers at the Laconian town of Karyai. Classical architecture represented such women as load-bearing figures; the Greek plural survives in English as caryatides.

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