My little pet peeve du jour: Podium vs. lectern!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

Whenever Sean Sphincter turns up on the news, there is often a reference to SNL and Melissa McCarthy's motorized "podium." That thing speakers stand behind and put their notes on is often, probably more often than not, referred to as a "podium." It is not a podium. It is a lectern. A lectern is a thing you read your notes from; a podium is a raised platform you stand on. https://mannerofspeaking.org/2012/03/10/podium-vs-lectern/

This is a podium:


This is a lectern:


OK, it's picky. But that damn thing Sean Sphincter conducts his lie-fests at is a damn lectern! Not a podium!

[brush]

1. Thank you. You are quite right. Many people interchange the two.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

2. While you are 100% correct,

Look up "lectern microphone". 99% of your results will be for items called "Podium microphones". Peavey, Audix, Shure, et al (all top name companies) refer to the microphone that attaches to the lectern as a "podium mic", which only further ads to the confusion over the nomenclature.

[Buns_of_Fire]

3. "I got the Presidential Seal, I'm up on the Presidential Podium..."

My thanks to Paul Simon. Just like Jiminy Cricket taught me how to spell "encyclopedia".

[IADEMO2004]

4. Concrete Cement Now I feel better

[Rex]

5. The Internets agree with you 50% of the time if I type in 'podium' on google.

It agrees 100% of the time if I type in 'lectern'. Dam you Internets! We have so much farther to go in podium/lectern literacy!

[TlalocW]

6. You snowflake

Now what's REALLY important is people thinking theory means, "Best guess with no evidence," when they should be using hypothesis!

TlalocW