You've probably listened to speakers who stood behind a raised platform. They set their notes on top and sometimes possibly gripped the edges for support. That platform is called a rostrum, also known as a podium or lectern.
The word rostrum, which originally meant animal snout or bird's beak in Latin, has a back-and-forth history. The word came to be used for the battering beak at a warship’s bow. The ancient Romans used the beaks from captured ships to decorate a platform from which orators could speak. The place where the speeches were delivered was called the rostra, which was the plural of rostrum. In the mid-17th century, rostrum came to be used for a public-speaking platform. By the way, the plural of rostrum is still rostra.
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n |
a platform raised above the surrounding level to give prominence to the person on it
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2 |
n |
beaklike projection of the anterior part of the head of certain insects such as e.g. weevils
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