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Stele vs Obelisk - What's the difference?

stele | obelisk |

As nouns the difference between stele and obelisk

is that stele is while obelisk is obelisk (a tall, square, tapered, stone monolith topped with a pyramidal point).

stele

English

(wikipedia stele)

Etymology 1

A parallel etymology to , distinguished via ablaut.

Noun

(en noun)
  • * (Geoffrey Chaucer), The Canterbury Tales , "the Tale of the Wyf of Bathe"
    • ...in o]] purpos stedefastly to dwelle
    And nat biwreye thing that men us telle
    ...that tale is nat worth a rake-stele
    L'ardee, we wommen conne [[nothing, no-thing hele [=hide ]

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) . (stele)

    Alternative forms

    * *

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (archaeology) An upright (or formerly upright) slab containing engraved or painted decorations or inscriptions; a stela.
  • * 1820 , T. S. Hughes, Trav. Sicily , I x 303:
    • A superior class of members...had their names inscribed upon a marble stélé or column.
  • * 1825 , T. D. Fosbroke, Encycl. Antiq. , I v 70:
    • It appears, that when any one of the family died, a stelè to his memory was added to the tomb.
  • * 1847 , J. Leitch translating C. O. Müller, Anc. Art , §224 193:
    • In Egypt [obelisks] belonged to the class of steles (commemorative pillars).
  • * 1884 , A. Lang, Custom & Myth , 285:
    • The Australian stele , or grave-pillar.
  • (archaeology, uncommon) Any carved or engraved surface.
  • * 1877 , A. B. Edwards, Thousand Miles up Nile , VI 143:
    • Two large hieroglyphed steles incised upon the face of a projecting mass of boldly rounded cliff.
  • (architecture, archaeology, obsolete) An acroterion, the decoration on the ridge of an ancient Greek building such as a temple.
  • * Hosking, "Architecture" in Encyclopædia Britannica , III 470:
    • Stele. The ornaments on the ridge of a Greek temple, answering to the antefixæ on the summit of the flank entablatures, are thus designated.
    Usage notes
    * Although stela'' and ''stele'' were used in antiquity for pillars and columns generally, and continued to carry that meaning when their use was revived in English archaeology and architecture in the 18th and 19th century, respectively, present usage usually distinguishes ''obelisks'', ''columns'', ''shafts'' (the body of a column between the capital and the pediment), etc., from ''stela'' and ''stele , which are used to refer to engraved slabs or small pillars. * Furthermore, although the terms still refer to small pillarlike gravestones from antiquity, the similar-looking herms'' are now often distinguished, as are modern ''gravestones'', ''monuments'', ''boundary markers , etc. * The terms do sometimes refer to undecorated rocks when they have been raised by artificial means in prehistoric times, particularly when they are slab-like, but the large Neolithic menhirs'' are usually distinguished as are Chinese ''scholar's rocks'' or ''Taihu rocks , and other modern uses of upright stones as decoration or signage. * Stele'' is frequently pluralized irregularly as stelae, but this is a hypercorrection arising from confusion with the Latin-derived ''stela . The anglicized Greek plural (stelai) has been used since the late 19th century but is less common than (m).
    Synonyms
    * stela
    Derived terms
    * actinostele * atactostele * dictyostele * eustele * haplostele * plectostele * protostele * siphonostele * solenostele

    Etymology 3

    From 1886 (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (botany) The central core of a plant's root and stem system, especially including the vascular tissue and developed from the plerome.
  • * 1895 , Sydney Howard Vines, A Students' Text-book of Botany , 179:
    • The stele may have—in different structures—one to many protoxylem (primitive wood) groups, and is accordingly described as monarch...diarch...triarch...tetrarch...polyarch.
  • * 1898 , Hobart Charles Porter translating Eduard Strasburger & al. A Text-book of Botany , 109:
    • The so-called central cylinder, for which Van Tieghem has proposed the name stele (column).

    Anagrams

    * * * * ----

    obelisk

    English

    (wikipedia obelisk)

    Alternative forms

    * obelisc

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A tall, square, tapered, stone monolith topped with a pyramidal point, frequently used as a monument.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
    • , author= , title=The Washington Monument , volume=100, issue=1, page=16 , magazine= citation , passage=The Washington Monument is often described as an obelisk', and sometimes even as a “true '''obelisk''',” even though it is not. A true ' obelisk is a monolith, a pylon formed out of a single piece of stone.}}
  • (printing) The dagger sign (†), especially when used as a reference mark.

    • See also

    * menhir * pillar ----