lorgnette

English

A lorgnette.

Etymology

Borrowed from French lorgnette, from lorgner (“to take a sidelong look at”) (from Middle French lorgne (“crosseyed”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɒɹnjɛt/
• Rhymes: -ɛt

Noun

lorgnette (plural lorgnettes)

1. An opera glass with a handle.

   Synonym: (archaic) lorgnon

   • 1869, Mark Twain, chapter XXXII, in The Innocents Abroad, page 340:

     In the valley, near the Acropolis, […] Athens itself could be vaguely made out with an ordinary lorgnette.

2. Elaborate double eyeglasses.

Coordinate terms

• longue-vue

 

Translations

opera glass with a handle

• Bulgarian: лорнет m (lornet)
• Dutch: toneelkijker (nl) m, binocle (nl) f, lorgnet (nl) f or n (uncommon)
• Finnish: lornetti (fi)
• French: binocle (fr) m, lorgnette (fr) f, lorgnon (fr) m,
• Georgian: ლორნეტი (ka) (lorneṭi)
• German: Lorgnon (de) n, Lorgnette (de) f
• Greek: κιάλι (el) n (kiáli)
• Hungarian: lornyon (hu), lornyett (hu)
• Ido: lorneto (io), binoklo (io), manu-binoklo, bilorneto (io)
• Italian: fassamano (it) m, occhialetto m, occhialino m
• Polish: lorgnon m, lornion m
• Russian: лорне́т (ru) m (lornét)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ло̀рњет m, ло̀рњо̄н m

  Roman: lòrnjet (sh) m, lòrnjōn (sh) m

• Swedish: lornjett (sv) c

Further reading

• lorgnette on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Etymology

From lorgner (“to take a sidelong look at”) +‎ -ette, analogous to lunette.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɔʁ.ɲɛt/

Noun

lorgnette f (plural lorgnettes)

1. lorgnette
   • 1924, Emmanuel Bove, Mes Amis‎^[1]:

     Au théâtre, nous occuperions une loge. En me penchant, je pourrais toucher le rideau. De toute la salle, on nous observerait, avec des lorgnettes.

     At the theatre, we would have a box. If I leant over, I would be able to touch the curtain. The whole auditorium would watch us through lorgnettes.

Derived terms

• regarder par le petit bout de la lorgnette

Further reading

• “lorgnette”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.