draisienne

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French draisienne. Named after Karl Drais.

Noun

draisienne (plural draisiennes)

1. (historical, cycling) dandy-horse, hobby horse
   • 1989, William Weaver, transl., Foucault's Pendulum, Random House, translation of Il pendolo di Foucault by Umberto Eco, page 10:

     I looked to the right, where velocipedes with huge art-nouveau wheels and draisiennes with their flat, scooterlike bars evoked gentlemen in stovepipe hats, knights of progress pedaling through the Bois de Boulogne.

Related terms

• draisine

Anagrams

• Indianeers, arsinidene, nereidians

French

Etymology

From Drais +‎ -ienne, named after Baron Karl Drais (1785–1851).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dʁɛ.zjɛn/, /dʁe.zjɛn/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

draisienne f (plural draisiennes)

1. (historical) hobby horse, dandy horse (early bicycle)
2. balance bike

Related terms

• draisine

Further reading

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