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gue·ri·don

(gĕrĭ-dŏn′, gā-rē-dôɴ)

A small round table.

[French guéridon, from earlier guéridon, person holding a torch and standing encircled by a ring of dancers in a dance performed to a popular 17th-century French song, from guéridon, nonsense word in the refrain of this song, from o gué and laridon, mocking refrains that alternate in French satirical popular songs and rhyme with the previous line (the style of table being so called because it originally had one leg carved in the shape of person and was used support a candelabrum, and thus resembled the torch holder standing in the middle of the dance).]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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