It’s a lectern, not a podium. You stand on a podium as where a conductor of an orchestra would stand. You stand behind a lectern. Just being picky ..... product of home schooling, sorry.
/r/Jane
Not ready for prime time the BHO is le poseur....too bad McCain is also a poseur, without the Frenchi connotation!
You have singlehandedly destroyed 99% of Us as to our egos. darn, we knew it was a Podium until you corrected us. Now if You had done that to the Demorats, they would have flown into a rage and had You airmailed to Ft Marcy Park. Like Rush says, he lets Libs on his show to demonstrate to us how they cant by 30 seconds without flying into a rage and foaming at the mouth, a great example being James Carville and lately Olde Bubba (alias The Bent One)! How did a Lecturn lead to this discourse. easy, B.O. HUSSEIN was behind the Lecturn. I’m ecstatic B.O. HUSSEIN, with his over powering fu fu juice hasn’t been put up on a podium yet like his Hero, Saddam HUSSEIN!
One more tidbit for your lecturn..in a church it is called an ambro,,go figure. I called it a lecturn and got roundly corrected! Oh MY!!
podium
noun (plural: podiums or podia)
A platform on which to stand, as when conducting an orchestra or preaching at a pulpit
A stand used to hold notes when speaking publicly
You are quite correct etymologically. However, there’s this little peculiarity about language. (Especially the English language.)
Misuse a word long enough and the definition changes to include the new usage.
So a secondary definition of podium is now the lectern you stand behind and put your notes on.
Sorry.
If we tossed out all the words that have changed their meaning this way in English we’d lose a remarkable number. Some words change to mean the exact opposite of the original meaning.