A.Word.A.Day --trompe l'oeil

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Oct 24, 2018

This week’s theme
Words related to the eye

This week’s words
prosopopeia
ullage
trompe l'oeil
ocellus
red-eye

The reverse of a framed painting
(It’s not a photograph of the reverse of a framed painting)

Art: Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts, 1670

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

trompe l’oeil

PRONUNCIATION:

(tromp loi)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A style of painting in which objects are rendered in extremely realistic detail, giving an illusion of reality.
2. A painting, mural, etc., made in this style.

ETYMOLOGY:

From French, literally “fools the eye”, from tromper (to deceive) + le (the) + oeil (eye). Earliest documented use: 1889.

USAGE:

“The suite had ... an elegant chandelier hung from a trompe l’oeil ceiling of blue sky with puffy clouds.”
William Friedkin; In Search of Marcel Proust; The New York Times Magazine; May 21, 2017.

See more usage examples of trompe l’oeil in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

You have to hold your audience in writing to the very end -- much more than in talking, when people have to be polite and listen to you. -Brenda Ueland, writer (24 Oct 1891-1985)

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