Faldstools

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Portable folding seats without backs or arms, once used by bishops and other church dignitaries during services in medieval England
2. Collapsible chairs made of crossed legs, traditionally employed by bishops in ceremonies and processions within a cathedral
3. Movable X-shaped stools that clergy, especially bishops, sat upon in choir or at the altar during ecclesiastical rites

Etymology: Faldstool is the plural form of "faldstool", so the history belongs to the singular. The word combines "fald", an Old English term for a fold or enclosure, with "stool", a seat. A faldstool was a portable folding seat that a bishop used during church services, especially in places where a throne was not fixed in position. The name describes the object directly: a stool that folds up for carrying. The form "foldstool" is the same word spelled with the more familiar modern "fold", which is the sense it has today. Medieval and early modern English writers used both spellings, so the older form survives mainly in ecclesiastical and historical writing. Its use in the plural refers to the pair of such seats that might be set out for a bishop or for more than one officiant.

Synonyms: folding stool, camp stool