finial

Etymology

Late Middle English finial < Old French fin or Latin fīnis (“end”) + -ial

noun

1. (architecture) The knot or bunch of foliage, or foliated ornament, that forms the upper extremity of a pinnacle in Gothic architecture.
   Coordinate term: fleuron
2. (by extension) Any decorative fitting at the peak of a gable, or on the top of a flagpole, fencepost, newel post of a staircase etc.
   The finial is also of timber (probably oak) and is of the rather elaborate type, originally favoured by the London & South Western Railway for its timber masts. 1947 January and February, “Notes and News: An Unusual Signal at Mottisfont, S.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 55
   Mark Twain called the cherimoya “deliciousness itself,” though others have described this heart-shaped, fist-sized fruit with pale-green leathery skin as […] “the finial for a giant four-poster bed.” 1994-01-12, David Karp, “Once Considered Exotic, Some Fruits Become Family”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
   He says there’s a very particular etiquette to having your flag at half-mast: you’re supposed to first run it all the way up to the finial at the top and then bring it halfway down. 2005, David Foster Wallace, Consider the Lobster and Other Essays, New York: Little, Brown and Company, page 129
   For several years, the finial was missing, and its replica replacement will save the wooden post from rotting. September 22 2021, “A signal survivor from the 1800s”, in RAIL, number 940, page 82