Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
flaneur. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
flaneur, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
flaneur in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
flaneur you have here. The definition of the word
flaneur will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
flaneur, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From French flâneur (“loafer, idler, dawdler, loiterer”).
Pronunciation
Noun
flaneur (plural flaneurs)
- 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, 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: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):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.
- An idler, a loafer.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:idler
Derived terms
Translations
one who wanders aimlessly
- Catalan: escombracarrers m or f
- Estonian: flanöör (et)
- Finnish: kuljeskelija (fi)
- French: promeneur (fr) m, baladeur (fr) m, flâneur (fr) m
- German: Flaneur (de) m
- Italian: bighellone (it) m, perdigiorno (it) m, vitellone (it) m
- Malay: pelanur, flanur
- Norwegian: flanør m
- Polish: włóczęga (pl)
- Russian: фланёр (ru) m (flanjór), бра́жник (ru) m (brážnik), гуля́ка (ru) m (guljáka), кути́ла (ru) m (kutíla)
- Spanish: vagante m or f, vagueante m or f, callejero m, azotacalles (es) m or f (dated), paseante ocioso m, mirón (es) m, trotacalles m or f
- Swedish: flanör (sv) c
|
Verb
flaneur (third-person singular simple present flaneurs, present participle flaneuring, simple past and past participle flaneured)
- To wander aimlessly or at a lounging pace.
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
Dutch
Pronunciation
Noun
flaneur m (plural flaneurs, diminutive flaneurtje n)
- a person who walks the city in order to experience it
- (Belgium) a saunterer; a lounger
Romanian
Etymology
Borrowed from French flâneur.
Noun
flaneur m (plural flaneuri)
- loafer, idler, dawdler, loiterer
Declension
References
- flaneur in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN