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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

fanlight en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • /ˈfænˌlaɪt/

Etymology

From fan + light (“window; source of illumination”).

Meanings

  1. A semicircular or semioval window over a door or other window, normally having a fan-like structure of ribs; sometimes hinged to the transom.
    • Flutings also adorn the short architraves each side of the fanlight, and the abacus of the pilaster columns which is carried across a supplementary lintel in front of the lintel proper, the latter being several inches to the rear because of the deeply recessed arrangement of the door. 1920, Frank Cousins, Phil M. Riley, The Colonial Architecture of Philadelphia, Boston: Little, Brown, and Company:
    • It turned out to be a big gloomy pile with ivy and peeling walls and a smashed fanlight over the door, the kind of place where you picture a mad stepdaughter locked up in the attic. 1982, John Banville, The Newton Letter:
    • One house, however, second from the corner, was still occupied entire; and at the door of this, which wore a great air of wealth and comfort, though it was now plunged in darkness except for the fan-light, Mr. Utterson stopped and knocked. A well-dressed, elderly servant opened the door. 1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Search for Mr. Hyde”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 26:
    • This street is Summer. Faces of brick run together to make a single block-long face. The house numbers are set in fanlights of stained glass above the doors. 1960, John Updike, Rabbit, Run, page 65:
    • Limpet was out, but with a deal of struggling he managed to screw himself through the fanlight, removing in that process the dust of many ages. 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 90:
  2. An electric fan, usually a ceiling fan, that is also a light fixture.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
fanlights Number=Plur lexicographic

Deriveds

fanlighted · dummy fanlight

Hypernyms

transom window

Relateds

lightstick

Translations (3)

fr fenêtre en éventail (semioval window with a fan-like structure of ribs) · ga fuinneog fhardorais (semioval window with a fan-like structure of ribs) · es montante (semioval window with a fan-like structure of ribs)