Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Plinthus

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. 

PLIN'THUS (πλίνθος). The ordinary Greek name for a brick or a tile; whence the word was adopted by the Roman architects to designate the lowest member (Plinthus/1.1) in the base of a column, our plinth, which is a square slab, like a thick tile, placed under the lowest torus, and supposed to have originated from the necessity of placing a large flat surface under the column to prevent it from rotting, when formed of wood, or from penetrating too far into the ground, if stone. Vitruv. iv. 7. 3.

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  Plinthus/1.1