Scaffold Definition

skăfəld, -ōld

scaffolds

noun

A temporary wooden or metal framework for supporting workmen and materials during the erecting, repairing, or painting of a building, etc.

Webster's New World

A temporary wooden stage or platform, as that on which medieval plays were presented.

Webster's New World

A raised platform on which criminals are executed, as by hanging.

Webster's New World

Any raised framework.

Webster's New World

(metalworking) An accumulation of adherent, partly fused material forming a shelf or dome-shaped obstruction above the tuyeres in a blast furnace.

Wiktionary

Synonyms:

verb

To furnish or support with, or put on, a scaffold.

Webster's New World

To place on a raised framework or platform.

American Heritage

To set up a scaffolding; to surround a building with scaffolding.

Wiktionary

Origin of Scaffold

Middle English scaffold, scaffalde, from Medieval Latin scaffaldus, from Old French eschaffaut, escadafaut (“platform to see a tournament"), from Late Latin scadafaltum, from ex- + *cadafaltum, catafalcum (“view-stage"), from Old Italian *catare (“to view, see") + falco (“a stage"), a variant of balco (“stage, beam, balk"), from Lombardic palko, palcho (“scaffold, balk, beam"), from Proto-Germanic *balkô (“beam, rafter"), from Proto-Indo-European *bhelg- (“beam, plank"). Akin to Old High German balco, balcho (“scaffold, balk, beam"). More at catafalque, balcony, balk.

From Wiktionary
Middle English from Medieval Latin scaffaldus of Old French origin

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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