monopod

plural monopods

1. A portable stand with one leg, used to support a camera or telescope.

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   Another neat device is a kind of monopod (if we may coin a word), which is adjusted against the hub of the wheel by means of a Y-top, and has adjustable extension to reach to the ground. This sliding brass foot telescopes and shuts up into a length of only about sixteen inches, making a very effective means of turning the bicycle into a rigid camera stand.

   1886 September 26, “Photography for Wheelmen”, in Charles F[rederick] Chandler, Arthur H[enry] Elliott, editors, Anthony’s Photographic Bulletin, volume XVI, number 18, New York, N.Y.: E. & H. T. Anthony & Co., […], page 554

2. Someone or something that has only one foot or foot-like projection; especially, a mythological dwarf-like creature with a single, large foot extending from a leg centred in the middle of its body.

   Here the monopod hero, Santa Anna, fights cocks, and waits the moving of the waters in Mexico.

   1857, Isaac F[arwell] Holton, “Cartagena. […]”, in New Granada: Twenty Months in the Andes, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], page 47

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   Vnto what end like wiſe ſhould I ſpeak of thoſe blind Andabates that fight without eyes, or of thoſe great eared people the Faneſii, whoſe ears ſhadowed and couered their whole body? or of the Monopods, which in like manner ſhadow their whole body with one foote?

   1586, Lodowicke Lloid, “Of the maners of sundrie people, and of their strange life”, in The Pilgrimage of Princes, London: […] Iohn Wolfe, folios 77, verso – 78, recto

   Hence their ſacred Tables, ſome placed before the Images of their Gods in their Temples (as mention’d. Iſai. 65. 11. Ezek. 23. 41) and ſome ſet up for Libations, and other Idolatrous Uſes, in their Houſes: ſome call’d Tripods, with three Feet, ſome Tetrapods, with four; and ſome Monopods with one, in Manner of a Pillar:[…].

   1751, Benjamin Holloway, Originals Physical and Theological &c., volume II, pages 170–171

   The next order of walkers amongst apodous larvæ are those that move by means of fleshy tuberculiform or pediform prominences,—which last resemble the spurious legs of the caterpillars of most Lepidoptera. Some, a kind of monopods, have only one of such prominences, which being always fixed almost under the head, may serve, in some degree, the purpose of an unguiform mandible.

   1817, William Kirby, William Spence, “Motions of Insects. (Larva and Pupa.)”, in An Introduction to Entomology: or Elements of the Natural History of Insects: with Plates, volume II, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], page 277

   Very many fragments of vases, of various dimensions, were also found: some of them adorned in tiles, and some in circles; a part in intaglio, and a part in relief; all of terra cotta. Three monopods, of a single stone, are still uninjured, and the very ruins, under which they formerly lay for so many ages, have preserved them.

   1853, E. E. S., “Dr. Vassallo on Maltese Antiquities. Dei Monumenti Antichi nel Gruppo di Malta Cenni Storici del Dr. Cesare Vassallo. Periodo Fenicio ed Egizio. Valletta: 1851.”, in Journal of the American Oriental Society, third volume, New York, N.Y.: […] for the Society by George P. Putnam & Co. […], page 234

   But I do find, as I thought I should, the curious and valuable chapter (De Civitate Dei, Lib. XVI., Cap. 8), in which he discusses the question of Sciapods, Monopods, Monoculi, Androgynæ, and other monsters, and concludes, philosophically enough, that one is not bound to believe that they exist, and if they do exist, it is not proven that they are men.

   1858 December 19, Charles Kingsley, “1858. Aged 39.”, in [Frances Eliza Grenfell Kingsley], editor, Charles Kingsley: His Letters and Memories of His Life, 2nd edition, volume II, London: Henry S. King & Co., published 1877, page 65

   Synonyms: uniped