aquiline

English edit

WOTD – 11 November 2006

Aquiline

Etymology edit

From Latin aquilīnus, from aquila (“eagle”).

Pronunciation edit

IPA^(key): /ˈæk.wɪ.laɪn/
Audio (US) (file)

Adjective edit

aquiline (comparative more aquiline, superlative most aquiline)

Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of eagles; resembling that of an eagle.
Synonym: eaglelike

Frank's aquiline nose jutted out from underneath his glasses.
- 1748, [Tobias Smollett], chapter 22, in The Adventures of Roderick Random. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] [William Strahan] for J. Osborn […], →OCLC:
  He was about the age of two-and-twenty, among the tallest of the middle size; had chestnut-coloured hair, which he wore tied up in a ribbon; a high polished forehead, a nose inclining to the aquiline, lively blue eyes, red pouting lips, teeth as white as snow, and a certain openness of countenance—but why need I describe any more particulars of his person?
- 1791, Edmund Burke, Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs‎^[1], London: J. Dodsley, pages 139–140:
  Think of a genius not born in every country or every time: a man gifted by Nature with a penetrating, aquiline eye; with a judgment prepared with the most extensive erudition; with an herculean robustness of mind, and nerves not to be broken with labour; a man who could spend twenty years in one pursuit.
- 1903 September 26, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Empty House”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC:
  Holmes looked even thinner and keener than of old, but there was a dead-white tinge in his aquiline face which told me that his life recently had not been a healthy one.
- 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 11, in The Line of Beauty […], 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 283:
  […] Wani, whose smooth sleekness had been part of his charm, seemed to Nick to grow leaner and ever more aquiline.