Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Pila (first syllable long)

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

PI'LA, with the first syllable long (ἴγδη). Properly a deep mortar (alta, Ov. Ibis, 573.), in which things were brayed and pounded into an impalpable substance (Plin. H. N. xviii. 29. § 2.), by beating down with a pestle of great size and weight (see PILUM 1.); whence the Greek terms ἴγδις and ἴγδισμα also designate a dance, accompanied with much stamping of the feet. The annexed example (Pila/1.1) is from an original discovered at Pompeii; and is thus distinguished from mortarium, a mortar of smaller dimensions, in which ingredients were kneaded and mixed together; but the distinction is not always observed with accuracy.

2. (πεσσός). A pillar, or pier of an oval-shaped form, such as employed under water for supporting the superstructure of a bridge (Liv. xl. 51. Suet. Claud. 20. Senec. Q. N. vi. 30.); as a monument to receive an inscription (Nep. Alc. 4.); in front of a bookseller's shop, on which the catalogues were exposed to view (Hor. Sat. i. 4. 71.); or other purposes of a congenial nature.

3. (ἐνδόμησις). A pier or breakwater (Virg. Aen. ix. 711.), which is always rounded at the end, and in its entire mass from the base to the top at low water presents a figure of nearly similar form to the other objects expressly characterized by the same term.

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  Pila/1.1