Wiktionary

flaneur

See also: Flaneur and flâneur

English

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WOTD – 3 December 2009

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From French flâneur (“loafer, idler, dawdler, loiterer”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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flaneur (plural flaneurs)

  1. One who wanders aimlessly, who roams, who travels at a lounging pace.
    Synonyms: ambler, saunterer, stroller, wanderer
    • 1873, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, chapter VI, in The Parisians‎[1], book IX:
      […] Bevil drew him up to the door-step of a house close by, where, on certain evenings, a well-known club drew together men who seldom meet so familiarly elsewhere—men of all callings; a club especially favoured by wits, authors, and the flaneurs of polite society.
    • 1875 January–December, Henry James, Jr., “Rowland”, in Roderick Hudson, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., published 1876, →OCLC, pages 14–15:
      It often seemed to Mallet that he wholly lacked the prime requisite of a graceful flâneur—the simple, sensuous, confident relish of pleasure.
    • 1909, Henry James, Italian Hours‎[2]:
      Indeed I lost patience altogether, and asked myself by what right this informal votary of form pretended to run riot through a poor charmed flaneur’s quiet contemplations, his attachment to the noblest of pleasures, his enjoyment of the loveliest of cities.
    • 2009 October, Barry Estabrook, “Good Living”, in Gourmet, page 57:
      Portsmouth is a flaneur’s dream come true, a place that simply begs to be explored randomly and on foot.
    • 2014 August 23, Neil Hegarty, “Hidden City: Adventures and Explorations in Dublin by Karl Whitney, review: 'a necessary corrective' [print version: Re-Joycing in Dublin, p. R25]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review)‎[3]:
      In observing Dublin in this way – its cultural and geographic context, its streets and skies, neighbours and wider world – Whitney is occupying consciously the role of flâneur, defined by Baudelaire as "a lounger or saunterer, an idle man about town", a gatherer of aesthetic impressions.
  2. An idler, a loafer.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:idler

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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flaneur (third-person singular simple present flaneurs, present participle flaneuring, simple past and past participle flaneured)

  1. To wander aimlessly or at a lounging pace. [since at least the 1860s]
    • 1867, The Ladies' Cabinet of Fashion, Music & Romance, page 64:
      Meantime, we flaneured about the Guernsey market, and a remarkable pretty sight it was this bright morning.
    • 2015, Bruce Bauman, Broken Sleep, Other Press, LLC, →ISBN:
      Still, I wrote him often, and although I missed him, through autumn I contentedly flaneured about. At Alchemy's Christmas break we flew to Paris and stayed at Nathaniel's flat on Rue du Cherche-Midi. The three of us would lahdidah to the Luxembourg Gardens, where we read Alchemy the French canon of subversive lit.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:flaneur.

Anagrams

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Dutch

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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flaneur m (plural flaneurs, diminutive flaneurtje n)

  1. A person who walks the city in order to experience it.
  2. (Belgium) A saunterer; a lounger.
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Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French flâneur.

Noun

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flaneur m (plural flaneuri)

  1. loafer, idler, dawdler, loiterer

Declension

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Declension of flaneur
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) flaneur flaneurul (niște) flaneuri flaneurii
genitive/dative (unui) flaneur flaneurului (unor) flaneuri flaneurilor
vocative flaneurule flaneurilor

References

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  • flaneur in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN
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