Pedestal: In architecture, the lowest part of a column or pillar.

The pedestal sustains a column and serves as its “foot.”

A pedestal is a support structure, a base.

We can use the word pedestal figuratively as well. When we put someone “on a pedestal,” we are honoring them. Or, perhaps we are a bit obsessed. Whenever we want to “knock someone off their pedestal,” we have decided they could use good dose of humility.

Pedestal comes from the Latin word pes (genitive, pedis), meaning, foot.