A Newspaper Column Is a Printed Column of Type
A column is an upright pillar. The journalistic sense comes from the vertical strips a newspaper page is divided into.
A column is an upright supporting pillar. The newspaper sense is purely typographical: text is set in narrow vertical strips, and a writer given one such strip regularly became a *columnist*. Spreadsheets took the word for the same reason, and so did the military, where a column is a formation marching in depth rather than width.
- A supporting pillar. *Marble columns.*
- A vertical strip of print. *A weekly column.*
- A vertical division of a table. *Column three.*
- A military formation. *An armoured column.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | column | A stone column. |
| Plural | columns | Fluted columns. |
| Person | columnist | A political columnist. |
| Adjective | columnar | Columnar basalt. |
| Related | colonnade | A shaded colonnade. |
How it is used in a sentence
- She writes a weekly column.Journalism.
- Doric columns have no base.Classical architecture.
- A fifth column works from within.Subversives inside a besieged city.
The classical orders
- Doric — plain capital, sturdy, no base in the Greek form
- Ionic — scrolled capital
- Corinthian — elaborate acanthus leaves
- Tuscan — a plain Roman variant
- Composite — Roman, combining Ionic scrolls with Corinthian leaves
From Latin *columna*, a pillar, related to *columen*, a summit. The newspaper sense dates from the eighteenth century.
Where does *fifth column* come from?
From the Spanish Civil War: a general reportedly said four columns were advancing on Madrid and a fifth was inside the city.
Column or pillar?
They overlap. Column suggests a regular architectural form, often classical; pillar is the broader word.