Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An illustration that faces or immediately precedes the title page of a book, book section, or magazine.
- n. Architecture A façade, especially an ornamental façade.
- n. Architecture A small ornamental pediment, as on top of a door or window.
- n. Archaic A title page.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. That which is seen in front, or which directly presents itself to the eye. in architecture, the principal face of a building, particularly when it constitutes, as it were, an ornamental mask or screen, without architectural connection with the building behind it.
- n. A print or engraving placed in front of the title of a book.
- To furnish with a frontispiece.
- To use as a frontispiece: as, to frontispiece a map.
Wiktionary
- n. An illustration that is on the page before the title page of a book, a section of one, or a magazine.
- n. The title page of a book.
- n. A façade, especially an ornamental one.
- n. A small pediment of which is ornamental, especially on the top of a window or door.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The principal front of a building.
- n. An ornamental figure or illustration fronting the first page, or titlepage, of a book; formerly, the titlepage itself.
WordNet 3.0
- n. front illustration facing the title page of a book
- n. an ornamental facade
Etymologies
- Alteration (influenced by piece) of French frontispice, from Late Latin frontispicium, façade of a building : Latin frontis, genitive of frōns, forehead, front + Latin specere, to look at; see spek- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Blair's The Grave, "The Reunion of the Soul & the Body" and "The Soul hovering over the Body reluctantly parting with Life" (56-58), but does not reproduce or specifically discuss "Death's Door," and includes nine facsimiles: the frontispiece is a reduction of”
“At the sale of the original drawings executed by 'Phiz' for _Martin Chuzzlewit_ this frontispiece, which is an epitome of the salient characters and scenes in the novel, was sold for £35.”
“The portrait of Signorelli in the frontispiece is the half of this painting.”
“My copy has two titles, the first being an engraved one, with ten small circles round it, containing hieroglyphical figures, and an engraved frontispiece, which is repeated in the volume, with some other cuts.”
“The frontispiece is a coarsely executed wood cut, divided into six compartments, and representing the six days of the creation.”
“The frontispiece was a coloured picture of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden surrounded by amiable lions, benevolent tigers, ingratiating bears and leopards and wolves.”
“The frontispiece is a picture of the author, the Rev.C. R. Dawson, Cumberland, Md., and Rev. Gustave H. Caution, assistant to us, by the appointment of his Bishop.”
“The frontispiece was a photograph of Captain Jim himself, standing at the door of the lighthouse, looking across the gulf.”
“Bibliography of his works, of which the frontispiece is a portrait of”
“Phiz' for Martin Chuzzlewit this frontispiece, which is an epitome of the salient characters and scenes in the novel, was sold for L35.”
Charles Dickens and Music
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘frontispiece’.
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The Aleph
Words found in a collection of short stories by Jorge Luis Borges.
travail, magnanimous, troglodyte, euphorbia, satyr, lascivious, caustic, frontispiece, temerity, vertiginous, frieze, cupola and 72 more...
reesetee Also simply frontis; the plate facing a book's title page. Feb 24, 2008