Editing Lectern (section)

{{Short description|Reading desk on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud}}
[[File:Carter and Ford in a debate, September 23, 1976 (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|[[Gerald Ford]] and [[Jimmy Carter]] stand behind lecterns during a debate prior to the [[1976 United States presidential election]].]]
A '''lectern''' is a standing reading desk with a slanted top, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a [[scripture]] reading, [[lecture]], or [[sermon]]. A lectern is usually attached to a stand or affixed to some other form of support. To facilitate eye contact and improve posture when facing an audience, lecterns may have adjustable height and slant. People reading from a lectern, called [[lector]]s, generally do so while standing.

The word has its origins in the medieval [[Latin]] term ''lectrum'', related to ''legere'' which means 'to read'.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Petroski |first=Henry |author-link=Henry Petroski |date=2016 |title=Engineering: Lecterns Are Not Podiums |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44808990 |journal=American Scientist |volume=104 |issue=6 |pages=342–345 |issn=0003-0996}}</ref> In pre-modern usage, the word ''lectern'' was used to refer specifically to the "reading desk or stand ... from which the Scripture lessons (''[[lection]]es'') ... are chanted or read."<ref>Lectern, [https://books.google.com/books?id=pAwbAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA71 ''Chambers's Cyclopaedia'', Vol. VI] W. and R. Chambers, 1864; pp. 71-72.</ref> One 1905 dictionary states that "the term is properly applied only to the class mentioned [church book stands] as independent of the [[pulpit]]."<ref>D. C. Gilman, H. T. Peck and F. M. Colby (eds), Lectern, [https://books.google.com/books?id=rYpRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA68 ''The New International Cyclopaedia'', Vol. XII], Dodd, Mead and Co., 1905; p. 68.</ref> By the 1920s, however, the term was being used in a broader sense; for example, in reference to a memorial service in [[Carnegie Hall]], it was stated that "the lectern from which the speakers talked was enveloped in black."<ref>Domestic News: New York, [https://books.google.com/books?id=rIflAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA181 ''The Reform Advocate'', Vol LV], No. 7, September 18, 1920; p. 181.</ref> Lecterns are frequently also referred to as '''podiums''', a word which can also refer to an elevated platform upon which a lectern is placed, derived from the Latin root ''pod-'', meaning 'feet'.<ref name=":0" />