the.com/bannister
The rail that trusts you not to slide down it, yet knows you will.
means The handrail running alongside a staircase that you grip for balance, whether climbing or descending.
from Likely a worn-down form of 'baluster,' the proper word for one of those little vase-shaped posts holding the rail up — from Italian 'balaustra,' the pomegranate flower, because the posts flared like its blossom. Somewhere in common speech the 'l' slid into an 'n,' the way 'colonel' hides its own pronunciation trap, and 'bannister' stuck as the everyday name for the whole rail, posts included.
- spelling split
- also spelled banister, nobody agrees which
- etymology
- mangled from baluster, a little pillar
- childhood sport
- universal urge to slide ignores all railings
- real job
- saves knees, not just falls