Obelisk

Obelisk (pronounced ob-uh-lisk)

(1) Classically, a tapering, four-sided shaft of stone, usually monolithic and having a pyramidal apex.

(2) Something resembling such a shaft.

(3) An obelus.

(4) In printing, an alternative name for the dagger sign (†), especially when used as a reference mark.

1540-1550: From the sixteenth century French obélisque, from the Classical Latin obeliscus (obelisk, small spit), from the Greek obelískos (small spit, obelisk, leg of a compass), diminutive of obelos (a spit, pointed pillar, needle, broach; obelisk; bar of metal used as a coin or weight), of uncertain origin but said by etymologists to be pre-Greek.  Literal translations of obelos were variously “a spit, pointed pillar, needle”, the construct being obel(ós) + iskos, the diminutive suffix while the meaning in English was picked up from the Middle French obélisque.  The Greek obeliskos, reflecting the influence of Medieval translations, is sometimes translated as “leg of a compass".  The related adjectival forms are obeliscal and obeliskoid.  In printing, the sign resembling a small dagger dates from the 1580s; in dictionaries it's used to mark obsolete words (the Greek obelos also was "a mark used in writing; horizontal line used as a diacritic".

Ruins with an obelisk in the distance (1764), by Hubert Robert (1733–1808).

Lindsay Lohan walking in front of one of the Obélisques de Louxor (The Luxor Obelisks), Place de la Concorde in Paris, Paris Fashion Week, March 2010.