When the President of The United States gives a speech, he often stands at a wooden lectern featuring the presidential seal. A lectern is a stand you lecture from.
Lecterns often feature a sloped top and a little lamp to make reading from a paper or notes easier. The word lectern comes from the Latin word legere which means "to read." Podium is a word from the Greek that means the same thing. Lecterns serve another purpose for nervous readers — they offer a good hiding place for shaking hands.
