pyramid

▪ I. pyramid, n.
    (ˈpɪrəmɪd)
    Forms: see below.
    [Originally in form ˈpir-, ˈpyramis, pl. pir-, pyˈramides (pɪˈræmɪdiːz), later pyˈramids, a. L. pȳramis (med.L. also pīramis), pl. pȳramidēs, a. Gr. πῡραµίς, pl. πῡραµίδες (perh. of Egyptian origin, but anciently explained by some as a deriv. of πῦρ, πυρ- fire, by others as f. πῡρός wheat, grain, as if a granary). The later form ˈpyr-, ˈpiramide, ˈpyramid was app. after F. pyramide (in 12th c. piramide, Hatz.-Darm.). The pl. pyramisis, pyramidies, and sing. pyr-, pyramidis, -es, were popular or illiterate analogical formations.]
    A. Illustration of Forms.
    (α) 4–7 ˈpiramis, 6–8 ˈpyramis; pl. (4 syll.) 6–7 piˈramides, pyˈramides; (7 pyˈramidis, pyˈramisis, 8 piˈramidies); also (3 syll.) 6–7 pyˈramides (e mute), pyˈramids.
    The 3-syll. plurals pyˈramides (e mute), pyˈramids, retained the stress of pyˈrami-des; but it is only in verse that they can be distinguished from the 3-syll. ˈpyra-mides, ˈpyra-mids, with stress on first syllable, in β.

1398 Piramis [see pyrame 1]. 1555, 1586 Pyramides, piramides [see B. 1]. 1570, 1651 Pyramis [see B. 2, 4]. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. xi. (Arb.) 105 The Spire or taper, called piramis. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. vii. 40 Lepidus, I haue heard the Ptolomies Pyramisis are very goodly things. Ibid. v. ii. 61 Rather make My Countries high pyramides my Gibbet. 1619 Pasquil's Palin. xxxviii, To cast your tall Piramides to ground. 1662 Gerbier Princ. 30 His Figures and Statues Colosses, his Pyramidis like those of ægypt. c 1710 C. Fiennes Diary (1888) 78 Two piramidies full of pipes spouting water. 1716 Hearne Collect. V. 256 The Church hath a Pyramis or Spire.

1591 Spenser Ruins Rome ii, Greece will the olde Ephesian buildings blaze, And Nylus nurslings their Pyramides faire. 1595 ― Sonn. iii, Their huge Pyramids, which do heauen threat. 1611 Beaum. & Fl. Philaster v. iii, Make it rich..Like the Pyramides: lay on epitaphs.

    (β) 6–7 pyramide, piramide, 7 piramid, 7– pyramid; pl. 7 ˈpir-, ˈpyramides, ˈpiramids, ˈpyramyds, 7– ˈpyramids.

1597 A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. p. xv. b/1 The Pyramide which passeth cleane through the Trepane. Ibid. 7 b/1 The poynt a piramide of a Trepane. 1605 Shakes. Macb. iv. i. 57 (1623) Though Pallaces, and Pyramids do slope Their heads to their Foundations. 1606 ― Ant. & Cl. ii. vii. 21 They take the flow o'th'Nyle By certaine scales i'th'Pyramid. 1632 W. Lynnesay in Lithgow Trav. B iij, Memphis, in parch'd ægypts soyle: Flank'd with old Piramides, and melting Nyle. 1638–56 Cowley Davideis i. 752 Numbers which still encrease more high and wide From One, the root of their turn'd Pyramide. a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Poems Wks. (1711) 10 My heart a living pyramide I raise. 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. IV cccxxxvi, Th' intent Stood, a true Piramid, in Government. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 1013 Satan..Springs upward like a Pyramid of fire, Into the wilde Expanse. 1823 Byron Juan viii. cxxxvii, Guessing at what shall happily be hid As the real purpose of a pyramid.

    (γ) sing. 6–7 piramidis, 7 pyr-, piramides; pl. 6 piramidesses.

1595 in Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., Var. Coll. III. Introd. 38 The free mazons finishing..four of the topstones for the piramidesses. Ibid., The base and spire of a piramidis. 1600 W. Watson Decacordon Pref. (1602) A ij b, He also was cast off from the highest Pyramides of fortunes wheele. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 306 A certaine tower built like a piramidis. 1642 Vicars God in Mount (title-p.), A Panegyrick Piramides, erected to the everlasting high honour of England's God.

    B. Signification.
    1. A monumental structure built of stone or the like, with a polygonal (usually square) base, and sloping sides meeting at an apex; orig. and esp. one of the ancient structures of this kind in Egypt. Also Great Pyramid, the pyramid of the fourth-dynasty pharaoh Cheops at Giza; freq. used (usu. attrib.) with reference to its supposed mystical powers. (Great) Pyramid prophecy, the prediction of events of worldwide importance, based on a belief in the occult significance of the internal measurements of the Great Pyramid; pyramidology.

1555 Eden Decades Pref. (Arb.) 49 The hugious heapes of stones of the Pyramides of Egypt. 1586 T. Forster Pilgr. Mecca in Hakluyt Voy. (1599) II. i. 201 Without the Citie, sixe miles higher into the land, are to be seene neere vnto the riuer diuerse Piramides, among which are three marueilous great, and very artificially wrought. 1611 Beaum. & Fl. Philaster iv. iv, Place me, some god, upon a Piramis, Higher than hills of earth. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 129 Cheops, a King of ægypt, & the builder of this pyramis. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 1 ¶4, I made a Voyage to Grand Cairo, on purpose to take the Measure of a Pyramid. 1802 E. A. Kendall tr. Denon's Trav. in Upper & Lower Egypt I. 102 Herodotus relates that he was informed the great pyramid was the tomb of Chæops. 1813 Shelley Q. Mab ii. 129 Nile shall pursue his changeless way: Those pyramids shall fall. 1816 Byron Ch. Har. iii. lvi, By Coblentz..There is a small and simple pyramid;..Beneath its base are heroes' ashes hid. 1842 Gwilt Archit. (1876) 48 The great pyramid of Cholula, the largest and most sacred temple in Mexico. 1843 Prescott Mexico iv. vii. (1864) 253 [A Mexican teocalli] A stone building on the usual pyramidal basis; and the ascent was by a flight of steep steps on one of the faces of the pyramid. 1859 J. Taylor Great Pyramid p. vi, I have confined my observations to the Great Pyramid alone. 1877 A. B. Edwards Up Nile i. 19 The Great Pyramid..towers close above one's head. 1937 E. Gill Let. 7 July (1947) 389, I did go and see the great Pyramid! and went up & into its middle! Nought but exclamation marks will convey to you its amazing & marvellous mad grandeur! 1948 A. Christie Taken at Flood i. iv. 36 Did you read the book on the Pyramid prophecies I sent you?.. Really explains everything. 1958 L. Durrell Balthazar vi. 150 It gave me the respite I needed to have a go at his heart. It was silent as the Great Pyramid. 1960 M. Bouisson Magic 288 The case of the Great Pyramid prophecy for the date of 20 August 1953 seems to us..inexplicable. 1961 E. Waugh Unconditional Surrender ii. v. 145 His objections..were..occult, being in someway based on the dimensions of the Great Pyramid. 1972 Guardian 5 Oct. 17/6 Innumerable errors of the Shakespeare cypher and Great Pyramid Prophecy variety. 1976 Listener 19 Feb. 199/1 Books on ESP, UFOs, the mystic powers of the Great Pyramid..are..strong runners in the publishing stakes.

    2. a. The form of a pyramid; in Geom. a solid figure bounded by plane surfaces, of which one (the base) is a polygon of any number of sides, and the other surfaces triangles having as bases the sides of the polygon, and meeting at a point (the vertex) outside the plane of the polygon.
    Formerly sometimes extended to include the cone, which differs in having a circular (or other curved) base, and a continuous curved surface between the base and the apex.

1398 Piramis [see pyrame 1]. 1570 Billingsley Euclid ii. def. x. 314 A Pyramis is a solide figure contained vnder many playne superficieces set vpon one playne superficies, and gathered together to one point. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1322 The shadow of the earth being round, groweth point-wise or sharp at the end, in maner of a cone or pyramis. 1620–55 I. Jones Stone-Heng (1725) 70 That Fire hath the Form of a Pyramis is evident. 1672 Temple Ess. Govt. Wks. 1731 I. 105 The Rules of Architecture,..teach us that the Pyramid is of all Figures the firmest. 1795 Hutton Dict. Math. s.v., A cone is a round Pyramid, or one having an infinite number of sides... The axis of the Pyramid, is the line drawn from the vertex to the centre of the base. When this axis is perpendicular to the base, the Pyramid is said to be a right one; otherwise it is oblique. 1875 Bennett & Dyer Sachs' Bot. 367 The apical cell has..the form of an inverted triangular pyramid.

    † b. Erroneously used for the vertex or point of a pyramid or similar figure. (Cf. cone n.¹ 15.)

1649 Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. i. ii. §21 A great Body of Light transmitting his rayes through a narrow hollownesse does by that small Pyramis represent all the parts of the magnitude. Ibid. v. §6 The rayes of light passing through the thin air, end in a small and undiscerned pyramis.

    † 3. Arch. Any structure of pyramidal form, as a spire, pinnacle, obelisk, etc. Also applied to a gable. (Cf. pediment 1.) Obs. exc. as in 1.

[c 1440 Promp. Parv. 397 Pykewalle (or gabyl), Murus Conalis, piramis, vel piramidalis.]

a 1552 Leland Itin. (1710) I. 77 Ther be 3 great old Toures with pyramides on them. 1595 [see A. γ]. 1600 Holland Livy, Martianus' Topogr. Rome viii. xi. 1401 There stood a Pyramis or steeple in times past, under which they say P. Scipio Africanus lay enterred. 1610 ― Camden's Brit. (1637) 585 [Lichfield Cathedral Church] doth mount on high with three pyramids or spires of stone. 1625 T. Browne in Darcie Ann. Q. Eliz. i. 82 A most rare Piramide of the Cathedrall Church of Saint Paul, in London, was strucken..with fire from heaven. 1630 Milton On Shakespear 4 What needs my Shakespear..that his hallow'd reliques should be hid Under a Star-ypointing Pyramid? 1632 in E. P. Jupp Carpenters' Co. (1887) 302 The Carpenters..have allwaies vsed to have the Cutting of..ballesters, hauces, tafferrells, pendants and piramides. 1634 in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) II. 699 The piramides upon the little gable ends. 1687 A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. ii. 60, I could observe..a square Minaret that spires into a Pyramid. c 1710, 1716 [see A. α].

    4. a. Any material thing or object of pyramidal form; a number of things arranged or heaped up in this form, a pyramidal pile.

1570 Dee Mathemat. Preface 29 Make of Copper plates,..a foursquare vpright Pyramis, or a Cone. 1597 [see A. β]. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 4 The top of this Peake or Pyramide [Teneriffe]..seldome without Snow. 1651 Stanley Poems 77 Or when one flame twined with another is They both ascend in one bright pyramis. 1727 Swift Gulliver, Pref. Let. §3 Smithfield blazing with pyramids of law-books. 1756–7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) I. 425 On each side of the altar, stands a pyramid of bones. 1831 Brewster Nat. Magic x. (1833) 257 Among the remarkable exhibitions of mechanical strength and dexterity, we may enumerate that of supporting pyramids of men. 1886 C. E. Pascoe London of To-day xvi. (ed. 3) 137 Horse-chestnuts with massive pyramids of white blossom.

    b. Gardening. Applied (orig. attrib., hence also simply) to a tree, esp. a fruit-tree, trained in a pyramidal form. So pyramid-trained adj., pyramid-training.

[1646 Evelyn Diary Apr.–June, At the entrance of this garden growes the goodliest cypresse I fancy in Europ, cut in pyramid.] 1712 Byrom Jrnl. & Lit. Rem. (1854) I. i. 17 The pyramid yew trees are set in the nursery. 1882 Garden 14 Jan. 19/3 Long lines of pyramid Apples and Pears. 1887 Nicholson Dict. Gard. III. 47/1 Pyramid training is largely practised with Pear-trees... Pyramids may be procured worked either on the Pear stock or on the Quince. 1890 Farmer's Gaz. 4 Jan. 7/1 A pyramid trained tree consists essentially of an upright stem, and as many side branches as can be..trained without overcrowding.

    5. fig. or allusively (from prec. senses).

1593 Drayton Past. iv. vi, He that to worlds pyramides will build On those great heroes..Should have a pen. 1600 [see A. γ]. a 1628 F. Greville Sidney (1652) 129 An unsteddy and sharp pointed Pyramis of power. 1670 Cotton Espernon ii. vii. 313 The most glorious Act of his life,..which..ought to be plac'd on the highest Pyramis of his Fame. 1826 Disraeli Viv. Grey ii. i, The apex of the pyramid of his ambition was at length visible. 1882 Farrar Early Chr. II. 488 To me the whole theory looks like an inverted pyramid of inference tottering about upon its extremely narrow apex.

    b. Finance. A structure of financial control achieved by a small initial investment; spec. in Stock Exchange, (a) a series of increases in stock acquired from the increased value of stocks already held; (b) a system by which a controlling interest in a holding company leads to control of a series of companies and their subsidiaries. orig. U.S.

1911 in Webster. 1932 New Yorker 14 May 22/1 The bankers who were setting up the biggest financial pyramids of yesterday are replaced by other steel-nerved bankers today. 1971 Financial Mail (Johannesburg) 26 Feb. 701/1 A further development came in 1969 when, at the height of the boom, an investment pyramid, Bivec, was floated. It had a 50 per cent interest in BBH and also controlled the properties of both Berzack and Illman. Ibid. 703/3 For the cautious investor seeking soundness, the yields are tempting, with the pyramid the more attractive and accessible share.

    c. U.S. A form of lottery in which each participant recruits two or more further participants. Also attrib.

1949 Washington Post 22 Mar. 1/6 All night long people would call me up to ask how the pyramids work. Ibid. 11/1 He personally believes pyramid clubs are illegal and violate the State lottery laws. 1955 Britannica Bk. of Year 489/2 The gullibility of some members of the public gave notoriety to the Pyramid-Party, a new version of the old chain-letter game, in which the individual, by paying an initial subscription and by recruiting two new members for the scheme, hoped eventually to reach the top of the ‘pyramid’, a position which would (theoretically) involve a considerable monetary profit.

    d. attrib. Used to designate: (a) a system of profit involving extensive subcontracting of work; (b) a sales market in which each buyer secures the participation of further buyers. See also sense 10 below.

1964 Daily Tel. 1 Apr. 24/5 Douglas sub-contracted the work to another firm, made only a plastic cover itself and then charged on the basis of the total cost. The Senate report..was on public hearings in 1962 into ‘pyramid’ profits of this type. 1970 Toronto Daily Star 24 Sept. 12/1 Pyramid sales is a system whereby goods are sold, often at an inflated price, but a reduction in price is offered to purchasers who supply the names of others who buy the product. 1972 Observer 5 Nov. 13/2 Pyramid distributors..can and may make more money by recruiting other people to sell products. 1973 Daily Tel. 1 Feb. 3 Scotland Yard detectives have obtained a warrant for the arrest of..an American businessman who controls Koscot Interplanetary (U.K.), a pyramid firm selling cosmetics.

    6. Cryst. A set of faces belonging to a single crystallographic form and, if symmetrically developed, meeting in a point; also, a form consisting of two such sets of faces on opposite sides of a common base.

1748 Sir J. Hill Fossils 154 Crystal..consisting..of eighteen sides, dispos'd in order of an hexangular column, terminated by an hexangular pyramid at each end. 1800 tr. Lagrange's Chem. I. 190 A salt, under the form of a solid with eighteen sides, terminated at each extremity by a pyramid of six faces. 1836–41 Brande Chem. (ed. 5) 663 Large right rectangular prisms, terminated by a four-sided pyramid. 1878 Gurney Crystallogr. 51 A group of triangular faces meeting in one point is called a pyramid. 1895 Story-Maskelyne Crystallogr. §201 The terms proto- and deutero⁓pyramid have been applied by various writers somewhat ambiguously to the diplo-pyramidal figures, or, in crystallographic language, pyramids, which have been here termed isosceles octahedra.

    7. Anat. Applied to various parts or structures of more or less pyramidal form; spec. (a) a mass of longitudinal nerve-fibres on each side of the medulla oblongata (some of which cross from one side to the other in the decussation of the pyramids); (b) each of the conical-shaped masses (distinctively called malpighian pyramids) constituting the medullary substance of the kidney, projecting, and opening at the apices by papillæ, into the pelvis of the kidney; (c) see quot. 1842.

1805 Med. Jrnl. XIV. 329 The most important..pair of nerves is what was hitherto called the pyramids, this fascicle of nerves is the origin of the cerebrum, or the hemispherii cerebri. 1842 Dunglison Med. Dict., Pyramid, a small, bony projection in the cavity of the tympanum, which is excavated to lodge the muscle of the stapes. 1869 Huxley Phys. v. (ed. 3) 124 Into this [pelvis of the kidney], sundry conical elevations, called the Pyramids, project; their summits present multitudes of minute openings—the final terminations of the tubuli. Ibid. xi. 303 At the lower and front part of the medulla oblongata, these [efferent impulses]..cross over; and the white fibres which convey them are seen passing obliquely from left to right and from right to left in what is called the decussation of the anterior pyramids. 1881 Behnke Mechanism Hum. Voice (ed. 2) 36 The remaining two cartilages [of the larynx]..are the Pyramids, so called because of their shape. 1890 Billings Nat. Med. Dict. s.v., P[yramid] of cerebellum, lobule of inferior surface of vermis of cerebellum... P-s. of Ferrein... P. of thyroid gland... P. of tympanum, a small bony eminence in the tympanum, behind the fenestra ovalis, enclosing the stapedius muscle. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 355 Paralysis of the limbs and tongue.., due to softening in the left olive and pyramid.

    8. a. loosely. A plane figure suggesting the profile of a pyramid; a triangular or cuneiform figure or formation, as a wedge-shaped body of men; a poem the successive lines of which increase or decrease in length; etc. spec. Formations of men or pieces in sports and games. (Cf. the sense ‘gable’ in 3.)

1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. xi. (Arb.) 108 Of the Spire or Taper called Pyramis... In metrifying his base can not well be larger then a meetre of six,..neare the toppe [of the Pyramis] there wilbe roome litle inough for a meetre of two sillables, and sometimes of one to finish the point. ? 1650 Don Bellianis 194 The Emperor gathering his men in form of Pyramids. 1658 Sir T. Browne Gard. Cyrus ii. 10 In Chesse-boards and Tables we yet finde Pyramids and Squares. a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) II. 120 As for Altars and Pyramids in Poetry, he [Benlows] has out-done all Men that Way; for he has made a Gridiron, and a Frying-Pan in Verse. 1869 H. F. Tozer Highl. Turkey I. 104 When the sun rose, the shadow of the peak was projected over sea and land..in a distinctly marked pyramid. 1899 A. H. Quinn Pennsylvania Stories 25 It was Penn's ball. The pyramid started with the cheers of ten thousand back of it. 1948 C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident iv. 39 Peter..who is super at gym.,..began a routine of tumbling, pyramids, etc. 1969 R. C. Bell Board & Table Games II. iii. 58 (caption) Initial position of pieces in ‘Pyramid’. 1973 Guardian 28 Mar. 15/2 There was nothing new about one line [bingo] games or games such as the ‘pyramid’ and the ‘sandwich’.

    b. Billiards. pl. A game played (usually) with fifteen coloured balls arranged in a triangle, and one cue-ball: see quot. 1850, and pyramid-spot.

1850 Bohn's Handbk. Games 554 Pyramid.—This game..can be played with any number of balls,..but the usual number is sixteen, viz. fifteen coloured, and one white... The fifteen coloured balls are placed on the table in the form of a triangle: the first, or point, being on the winning spot. 1864 Daily Tel. 1 June, I had played at pyramids by myself in the deserted billiard-room of the hotel.

    † 9. pl. (in form piramides). Name of some textile fabric: see quot. c 1605. Obs.

c 1605 Allegations of Worsted Weavers (B.M. Add. MS. 12504 art. 64), This Cloath [a Say] hath continewed his name and fashion till this day; but now lately by putting the same into coullours and twistering one thridd of one coullour with another of another coullour, beinge made narrowe, yt is now called Piramides. 1640 in Entick London (1766) II. 178 Piramides or Maramuffe, the piece, narrow.

    10. attrib. and Comb., as pyramid-builder, pyramid-building (also fig.); pyramid-fashion; pyramid-like, pyramid-shaped, adjs.; (spec. with ref. to the supposed mystical powers of pyramids: cf. sense 1 above) pyramid energy, pyramid freak, pyramid power; pyramid-rest (Billiards), a cue-rest the head of which is arched so as to allow it to be placed over a ball which would otherwise be in the way; pyramid-selling vbl. n., the selling of goods by a pyramid system (see sense 5 d (b) above); also pyramid-sell vb. trans.; pyramid-shell, a gastropod shell of the family Pyramidellidæ; pyramid-spot, the spot on a billiard table where the apex of the pyramid is placed, between the centre and the top spot; pyramid-text, any ancient Egyptian text found in the Pyramids; pyramid-wise adv., in the manner or form of a pyramid, pyramidally. (See also 4 b.)

1877 W. R. Cooper Egypt. Obelisks iii. (1878) 13 Deified *pyramid builders of the Vth dynasty.

1961 L. Mumford City in Hist. v. 152 All this..was *pyramid-building, both in the Egyptian and later Keynesian sense of the words. 1973 C. Sagan Cosmic Connection ix. 67 Harold Urey has perceptively referred to the space program as a kind of contemporary pyramid-building.

1976 National Observer (U.S.) 30 Oct. 17/1 (Advt.), Discover *pyramid energy... Send $7.50..for this 3{pp} × 5{pp} Pyramid Energy Generator.

1613 Purchas Pilgrimage viii. xii. 670 A mount of earth and stone fiftie fadome long every way, built *Pyramide-fashion.

1977 Undercurrents June–July 19/3 The Book of Revelation has remained a happy hunting ground for Jehovah's Witnesses, UFO and *Pyramid freaks, and amateur apocalyptics of all denominations.

1838 Lett. fr. Madras (1843) 133 This gateway is the *pyramid-like building that one sees outside.

a 1618 Sylvester Wood-mans Bear xliv, Like a pale *Pyramid pillar.

1976 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 24 Apr. 1/1 A book entitled Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain says that Russia has been into *pyramid power for a long time. Ibid. 1/2 Mrs Kelly isn't prepared to say whether it was pyramid power or whether the pyramid created a psychological effect that led to Casey's release from headaches.

1821 Byron Sardan. v. i. 65 Regal halls of *pyramid proportions.

1873 Bennett & ‘Cavendish’ Billiards 28 The *pyramid or spider-rest is cut out at the bottom.

1975 D. Bloodworth Clients of Omega xiv. 135 Why have you been *pyramid-selling confidential information on the side to all and sundry?

1972 Daily Tel. 30 Mar. 3/1 A company whose cosmetic business is said to involve ‘*pyramid selling’—a system whereby a franchiser sells to others the right to market goods—was banned in the High Court yesterday from operating its bank account. 1973 D. Francis Slay-Ride iv. 51 Always full of get-rich-quick schemes..I even heard him on about pyramid selling once.

1942 Parsons & Stallard Dis. Eye (ed. 10) xxxii. 657 A *pyramid-shaped gauze dressing, with its apex against the wound is firmly applied. 1976 Billings (Montana) Gaz. 7 July 1-b/1 Green-uniformed troops..patrolled the pyramid-shaped twin buildings where Olympic teams are living.

1873 Bennett & ‘Cavendish’ Billiards 83 Place the red again six inches nearer the *pyramid spot.

1894 Mahaffy in 19th Cent. XXXVI. 270 The study of the *Pyramid-texts, the documents of the Old Empire.

1600 Fairfax Tasso xv. xxxiv, Whose top *Pyramide-wise did pointed shew High, narrow, sharp, the sides yet more out⁓spred. a 1722 Lisle Husb. (1757) 494 The haycocks..are made with a broad bottom and sharp top, pyramidwise.

    Hence (nonce-wd.) ˌpyramiˈdaire [after millionaire], a person to whom a pyramid is erected as a monument.

1875 Emerson Lett. & Soc. Aims xi. Immortality, Every palace was a door to a pyramid; a king or rich man was a pyramidaire.

▪ II. ˈpyramid, v.
    [f. the n.]
    1. intr. Of a group in a painting: to be disposed in a form suggesting a pyramid, i.e. symmetrically about a central figure in an elevated position.

1845 Blackw. Mag. LVIII. 418 It contributes to the goodness of the picture..if by means of it [the light] the groups pyramid and unite well. Note, Fuseli objects that the principal figures and chief action in the Raising of Lazarus..are crowded into a corner. He would have had them ‘pyramid’.

    2. trans. Finance. a. To accumulate (assets); spec. in Stock Exchange, to build up (stock) from the proceeds of a series of advantageous sales. Also absol.

1901 G. H. Lorimer Lett. Self-Made Merchant (1903) v. 64 He'd invent a system for speculating in wheat and go on pyramiding his purchases till he'd made the best that Cheops did look like a five-cent plate of ice cream. 1927 P. Marks Lord of Himself ii. 23 He pyramided his winnings and piled gold on gold..and finally saw himself a millionaire three times over. 1961 ‘E. Lathen’ Banking on Death (1962) xiv. 113 He started pyramiding; put up twenty dollars and got the banks to lend him eighty to a hundred dollars. 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 13 Mar. 3/4 (Advt.), And if you are older than 30, it is true that you do not have as long a period of time to pyramid your savings.

    b. To set up (a company) as part of a pyramid (see sense 5 b (b) of the n.).

1942 E. Paul Narrow St. xxiv. 212 With the money Stavisky borrowed he floated several companies and sold stock, pyramiding one concern upon the other until he had a finger in practically every financial pie in France. 1955 A. S. Link Amer. Epoch ii. xiv. 312 The promoter might pyramid one holding company on top of another almost indefinitely.

    3. To distribute (assets or costs), esp. to pass on (costs) by means of a pyramid (sense 5 d (a)) of subcontracted work.

1933 Sun (Baltimore) 19 Aug. 1/6 Cotton manufacturers are attempting to make abnormal profits by pyramiding their labor costs and the processing tax. 1973 Time 25 June 86/2 Southwestern pyramids its commissions to reward the chain of students and executives above the salesman for each sale.

    4. fig. To arrange in the form of a pyramid; gen., to pile up.

1945 L. Mumford in Archit. Rev. XCVII. 6/1 Centres like New York, which continue to pyramid their mistakes, will descend with Gadarene swiftness into the abyss. 1948 J. Steinbeck Russ. Jrnl. iii. 41 The canned goods are piled in mountains, the champagne and wine from Georgia are pyramided. 1964 Gould & Kolb Dict. Social Sci. 287/1 Power may be pyramided as in the army or relatively evenly divided as in fellowships. 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 10 Apr. 21/1 He will pinch powdery tobacco between his thumb and forefinger, pyramid it on the back of his opposite hand, bring it to his nostrils, and sniff.

    5. intr. To become rich; to acquire greatly increased value or wealth. Also with up.

1960 I. Jefferies Dignity & Purity vii. 134 There is something about the spectacle of..Gobbo pyramiding up on property—houses, flats and so on, that the ordinary person needs must have—that I don't quite like. 1962 K. Orvis Damned & Destroyed ii. 21 The same ounce of heroin..has pyramided in black-market value.

    Hence ˈpyramided ppl. a., ˈpyramiding vbl. n. and ppl. a.

1930 J. R. Aiken Eng. Present & Past iv. xi. 226 In the words uppermost, furthermost, innermost, hindermost, and several others like them, we have the comparative degree combined with the doubly superlative most,..causing a triple pyramiding of inflections. 1933 Sun (Baltimore) 19 Aug. 1/1 Couzens said he ‘knew of no other city in the whole world where there was such an orgy of pyramiding of corporations and the fixing of fictitious values and earnings’. 1941 Ibid. 25 Mar. 14/3 Because the projects are in the jurisdictions of differing metal trades unions, the unhappy welders have had to pay tribute not to just one union, not to just one local of one union, but to many metal trades unions and to many locals of metal trades unions. It is this pyramiding of initiation, membership and ‘permit’ fees on the welders that Mr. Hillman tried to stop. 1951 M. McLuhan Mech. Bride (1967) 128/1 Production for use? Yes. But for the briefest possible use consistent with the rigging of the market for the pyramiding of profits. 1957 D. L. Bolinger in Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xxviii. 18 Imputations..share the characteristic of the larger class of pyramided Qs to which they belong and may be inverted with little or no change of meaning. Ibid. 21 How—why Qs with that and their pyramiding are discussed. 1958 Times 22 Nov. 7/7 The pyramiding of prosperity, American style, poised more and more on the expanding leisure of a consumers' State. 1967 Economist 17 June 1248/4 There is strong feeling against companies..which retain control of an empire with the minimum of capital through ‘pyramiding’. 1976 G. W. McKenzie Econ. Euro-Currency System vi. 78 It is possible that euro-banks may place their dollar assets with other euro-banks. This raises the possibility of a ‘pyramiding’ chain of inter-bank deposits being created. 1977 Time Feb. 33/1 Winter stress can be aggravated by the thought of pyramiding fuel bills.

Oxford English Dictionary