Easel

An easel is an upright support used for displaying and/or fixing something resting upon it, at an angle of about 20° to the vertical.

Easels are typically made from wood, aluminum or steel.

The word easel is an old Germanic synonym for donkey (compare similar semantics).

In various other languages, its equivalent is the only word for both the animal and the apparatus, such as Afrikaans: esel and earlier Dutch: ezel (the easel generally in full Dutch: schildersezel, "painter's donkey"), themselves cognates of the Latin: asinus (ass).

In the 1st century, Pliny the Elder made reference to a "large panel" placed upon an easel.