frontispiece
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle French frontispice, from Latin frontispicium, from frōns (“forehead”) + speciō (“to look at”). Spelling altered due to folk etymology, influenced by piece.
Pronunciation
Noun
frontispiece (plural frontispieces)
- (publishing) An illustration that is on the page before the title page of a book, a section of one, or a magazine.
- Coordinate term: headpiece
- 1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in Railway Magazine, page 163:
- The viaduct was illustrated as a frontispiece to THE RAILWAY MAGAZINE of September, 1938.
- (archaic, publishing) The title page of a book.
- (architecture) A façade, especially an ornamental one.
- (architecture) A small ornamental pediment, especially at the top of a window or door.
- (slang, archaic, humorous) A person's face.
- 1844, George Pope Morris, Nathaniel Parker Willis, The New Mirror, volume 3, page 99:
- He carries on his frontispiece the indubitable marks of a money-dealer. His is one of those peculiar faces
Translations
publishing: illustration
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publishing: title page — see title page
façade
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small ornamental pediment
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Verb
frontispiece (third-person singular simple present frontispieces, present participle frontispiecing, simple past and past participle frontispieced)
- (transitive, rare) To supply with a frontispiece.
- The novel was frontispieced with a portrait of the author.
References
- ^ The Chambers Dictionary, 9th Ed., 2003
- ^ “frontispiece”, in Collins English Dictionary.
- ^ “frontispiece”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- Michael Quinion (2004) “Frontispiece”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, →ISBN.