mirage
English
editEtymology
editUnadapted borrowing from French mirage c. 1812.
Pronunciation
editNoun
editmirage (plural mirages)
- An optical phenomenon in which light is refracted through a layer of hot air close to the ground, often giving the illusion of a body of water.
- Hypernym: optical illusion
- Hyponym: Fata Morgana
- (figuratively) An illusion.
- 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VI, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 68:
- I remember hearing, that in the East the clear and azure waters seem to flow before the weary and parched traveller; yet a little further, and on he urges his weary way, but in vain—the fair stream is a delusion. Even thus happiness is the mirage which leads us over the desert of life, ever fated to end in deceit and disappointment.
Derived terms
editTranslations
editan optical phenomenon
|
illusion — see illusion
Verb
editmirage (third-person singular simple present mirages, present participle miraging, simple past and past participle miraged)
- (transitive) To cause to appear as or like a mirage.
- 1915, E. Phillips Oppenheim, Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo[1]:
- All that had been in his mind seemed suddenly miraged before him—the removal of Hunterleys, his own wife's failing health.
- 1901, A. E. W. Mason, Ensign Knightley and Other Stories[2]:
- The vision of a salon was miraged before her, with herself in the middle deftly manipulating the destinies of a nation.
References
edit- “mirage, n.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
Further reading
editAnagrams
editFrench
editEtymology
editPronunciation
editNoun
editmirage m (plural mirages)
Descendants
editFurther reading
edit- “mirage”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
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