Etymology Dictionary

BALUSTER,  a rail of a staircase, a small column.  (F.,—Ital.,—Gk.)   Evelyn (Of Architecture) speaks of 'rails and balusters;' Dryden has ballustred, i.e. provided with balusters, Art of Poetry, canto i. l. 54; Mason has balustrade, English Garden, b. ii (R.)—F. balustre; Cotgrave has:  'Balustres, ballisters, little, round, and short pillars, ranked on the outside of cloisters, terraces;' &c.   He also has:  'Balustre, Balauste, the blossome, or flower of the wild pomgranet tree.'—Ital. balaustro, a baluster, small pillar; so called from a fancied similarity in form to that of the pomegranate flower.—Ital. balausto, balausta, balaustra, the flower of the wild pomegranate tree.—Lat. balaustium.—Gk. βαλαύστιον, the flower of the wild pomegranate; Dioscorides.   Allied, I suppose, to Gk. βάλανος, an acorn, a fruit, date, &c., cognate with Lat. glans, an acorn; Fick, i. 569, Curtius, ii. 76.   The derivation is from the European GAL, to cause to fall, to cast (Gk. βάλλειν, to cast, Skt. gal, to trickle down, fall away).—✔GAR, to fall away; cf. Skt. grí, to eject, gara, a fluid.   See Fick, i. 73, 568.   Der. balustr-ade, q.v.   ¶ The Span. baraustre, a baluster, stands alone, and must be a corruption of balaustre.   Mr. Wedgwood supposes the contrary, and would derive baraustre from vara, a rod.   But he does not account for the termination -austre.