Platform
PLATFORM (Fr. plateforme, i.e. ground plan), a word now generally confined to a raised flat structure or stage, temporary or permanent, erected in a building or in the open air, from which speeches, addresses, lectures, etc., can be delivered at a public or other meeting. Similar structures of wood, brick or stone, are used in railway stations at such a level above the rails as to enable passengers to have easy access to the carriages; and in brtification the word is used of the raised level surface on which juns are mounted. The earlier uses of the word, such as for a Diane geometrical figure, the ground plan of a building, and iguratively, for a plan, design, scheme, etc., are now obsolete, [n a figurative sense the term is applied to a common basis on which members of a political party may agree, and especially in the United States to the declaration made by a party at a national or state convention.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
