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In the story about the columns, they are said to have originated with a fiery seventeenth-century preacher, but the whole notion obviously owes something to the stylites, those early Christian ascetics who lived on top of pillars in the desert.—Charles McGrath, The New Yorker, 7 Aug. 2023
Word History
Etymology
Late Greek stylitēs, from Greek stylos pillar — more at steer
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