flambeau - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Proto-Indo-European *-lós

Proto-Indo-European *-elós

Old French -el

Middle French -eau

English flambeau

flambeau (plural flambeaus or flambeaux)

A burning torch, especially one carried in procession.
- 1865, Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, in Sequel to Drum-Taps: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d and other poems:
  […] With processions long and winding and the flambeaus of the night, / With the countless torches lit, with the silent sea of faces and the unbared heads, […]
- 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 955:
  She walked quietly with apparent composure and lowered head but her pallor betrayed her mortal fear – her skin glowed almost nacrous in the warm rose of the flambeaux.

burning torch

From flambe +‎ -eau.

flambeau m (plural flambeaux)

course aux flambeaux
passer le flambeau
reprendre le flambeau
retraite aux flambeaux
→ Dutch: flambouw
→ Spanish: flambó
→ English: flambeau
Nouveau Petit Larousse illustré. Dictionnaire encyclopédique. Paris, Librairie Larousse, 1952, 146th edition
“flambeau”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012