Emily Dickinson Lexicon

STOOL, n. [Sax. stol, Goth. stols, a seat, a throne; G. stuhl, a stool, a stock, a pew, a chair, the see of a bishop; D. and Dan. stoel, id.; Sw. stol; W. ystal. This coincides with stall and still. A stool is that which is set, or a seat; Russ. prestol, a throne.]

1. A seat without a back; a little form consisting of a board with three or four legs, intended as a seat for one person. – Watts.
2. The seat used in evacuating the contents of the bowels; hence, an evacuation; a discharge from the bowels.
3. [L. stolo.] A sucker; a shoot from the bottom of the stem or the root of a plant. – Edwards' W. Indies. Stool of repentance, in Scotland, an elevated seat in the church, on which persons sit as a punishment for fornication and adultery. – Johnson.