tour d'horizon

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French tour d’horizon.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtʊə(ɹ) ˌdɒɹɪˈzɒn/

Noun

tour d'horizon (plural tours d'horizon)

1. An extensive tour; figuratively, a wide-ranging or general survey.
   • 2007, James Brady, Warning of War: A Novel of the North China Marines:

     The observation plane made two lazy circles in the darkening sky and then, not wanting to be caught up there with full night coming, it broke off the second tour d'horizon and headed home, south and east.

   • 2012, Edith D. de Leeuw, Joop Hox, Don Dillman, International Handbook of Survey Methodology, page 419:

     This chapter provided a tour d'horizon of survey documentation as it stands today and might develop in the near future.

   • 2013, David Brown, The Development of British Defence Policy: Blair, Brown and Beyond:

     For example, in their otherwise welcome tour d'horizon of developments in British Defence Policy during the New Labour era, Cornish and Dorman skim over the content and consequences of the New Chapter relatively quickly (Cornish and Dorman, 2009).

   • 2014, William A. Blair, Journal of the Civil War Era: Summer 2014 Issue, page 227:

     A tour d'horizon of the Western Hemisphere showed slavery confined to the American South, Brazil, and Cuba.

   • 2015, Anthony Quinn, Curtain Call, page 389:

     The book that remained at my side while I wrote this novel was Juliet Gardiner's brilliant and enthralling tour d'horizon The Thirties (2010).

   • 2020 July 30, Chris Hall, “Bunker by Bradley Garrett review – building for the end times”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     After an introductory tour d’horizon of the history of bunkers since Cappadocia in 1200BC, Garrett charts the “first doom boom” in the early 1960s […]

Related terms

• tour de force

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tuʁ d‿ɔ.ʁi.zɔ̃/

Noun

tour d’horizon m (plural tours d’horizon)

1. overview, tour d'horizon

   faire un tour d’horizon ― to give an overview; to go on an extensive tour

Descendants

• → Italian: giro d'orizzonte (calque)

See also

• tour de table