Emily Dickinson Lexicon

A-CRO'TER, n. [Gr. ακροτηρ, a summit.]

In architecture, a small pedestal, usually without a base, anciently placed at the two extremes, or in the middle of pediments or frontispieces, serving to support the statues, &c. It also signifies the figures placed as ornaments on the tops of churches, and the sharp pinnacles that stand in ranges about flat buildings with rails and balusters. Anciently the word signified the extremities of the body, as the head, hands, and feet. – Encyc.