Start with two heavy stone towers standing either side of a temple door, which is what the Greek word behind pylon named. What stays from that picture is not the door but the standing: something upright, put there on purpose, impossible to walk past without seeing. Every later use keeps one half of it — either the height that holds things up, or the standing that marks a spot.
可以從一個畫面開始：神廟門口兩側各一座厚重的石塔，希臘文 pulṓn 原本指的就是這道門。留下來的其實不是「門」，是「立著」——一個東西直直站在那裡，是有人故意放的，走過去不可能看不到。後來的每個意思，都取了其中一半：要嘛是高到可以撐住東西，要嘛是站著標出一個位置。
From the word’s history
The source gives pylon as a learned borrowing from Ancient Greek pulon, meaning gateway.
來源說 pylon 是從古希臘文 πυλών（pulṓn，門）借進英文的。原本指神廟門口的塔門，所以「兩座立著的高塔」這個畫面，是後面所有用法的起點。
Wiktionary entry for pylon, packet evidence source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:585482367 (Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek πυλών)
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