lambrequin

English

covering for a helmet (sense 1)

heraldic lambrequins (sense 2)

crocheted lambrequin (sense 3)

lambrequins (sense 4) under overhangs and eaves of a building

Rouen faience with lambrequin (sense 5)

Alternative forms

• lambrekin

Etymology

Borrowed from French lambrequin.

Noun

lambrequin (plural lambrequins)

2. (historical) A scarf or other piece of material used as a covering for a helmet.
   • 1891, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, The White Company, New York, N.Y., Boston, Mass.: Thomas Y[oung] Crowell & Company […], →OCLC:

     'Twere as easy to woo the snow-dame that we shaped last winter in our castle yard. I did but ask her yesternight for her green veil, that I might bear it as a token or lambrequin upon my helm.

   • 1980, Gene Wolfe, chapter XVI, in The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun; 1), New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 146:

     A dead man (he had, I think, been suffocated with a lambrequin, there being those who practice that art) lay at the corner.

4. (heraldry) A heraldic representation of such an item, often used as drapery around a coat of arms.

   Synonym: mantling

6. (US) A short decorative drapery for a shelf edge or for the top of a window casing.

   Synonym: valance

   • 1883, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], Life on the Mississippi, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, →OCLC:

     Lambrequins dependent from gaudy boxings of beaten tin, gilded.

   • 1885, William Dean Howells, chapter XVI, in The Rise of Silas Lapham‎^[1]:

     […] the mirror over the mantel rested on a fringed mantel-cover of green reps, and heavy curtains of that stuff hung from gilt lambrequin frames at the window; […] .

   • 1920, Sinclair Lewis, Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, →OCLC:

     A suite in Paris, immense high grave rooms, with lambrequins and a balcony.

8. (architecture) A decorative architectural element placed along the eaves of a roof, the edges of an overhang, etc.

   Coordinate terms: valance, pelmet

10. (ceramics) A border pattern with draped effect.

Translations

A short decorative drapery for a shelf edge or for the top of a window casing

• Bulgarian: драперия (bg) f (draperija)
• Portuguese: lambrequim m
• Russian: ламбрекен (ru) m (lambreken)

French

Etymology

From Middle Dutch *lamperken. By surface analysis, lambeau (“scrap, strip”) +‎ -quin. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɑ̃.bʁə.kɛ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

lambrequin m (plural lambrequins)

1. lambrequin

Related terms

• lambeau

Descendants

• → Catalan: llambrequí
• → English: lambrequin
• → Portuguese: lambrequim
• → Russian: ламбрекен (lambreken)
• → Spanish: llambrequín

Further reading

• “lambrequin”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.