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bertillonage. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
bertillonage, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
bertillonage in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
bertillonage you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
Learned borrowing from French bertillonnage; from the name of the inventor, Alphonse Bertillon.
Pronunciation
Noun
bertillonage (uncountable)
- (historical) An early form of biometric identification used on criminals by the French police, making use of distinguishing anthropometric measurements, such as head size, arm span and scars.
- (by extension) A similar form of identification of used on racing greyhounds.
2005, Péter Nádas, translated by Imre Goldstein, Parallel Stories:Often these labels are of more use than the so-called bertillonage, those eleven items of physical measurement and characteristics that must be recorded to make a positive identification but that are useless for anything else and find themselves at the bottom of desk drawers or in unused databases.