Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An aimless idler; a loafer.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from flâner, to idle about, stroll, of Germanic origin; see pelə- in Indo-European roots.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word flâneur.

Examples

    Sorry, no example sentences found.

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • see also dérive

    November 21, 2007

  • This was Word of the Day about a week ago. Or Week of the Day about a word ago. But I may be strolling about aimlessly in search of a recollection here.

    I sense the accent is warranted in Fwench but not in English. Don't like the pointy hats in English unless it's the Archbishop of Canterbury doing weird ceremonial things for Queen and country.

    November 21, 2007

  • Also flaneur.

    October 4, 2008

  • "In fact, photography first comes into its own as an extension of the eye of the middle-class flâneur ... The flâneur is not attracted to the city’s official realities but to its dark seamy corners, the neglected populations—an unofficial reality behind the façade of bourgeois life that the photographer ‘apprehends,’ as a detective apprehends a criminal.” - Susan Sontag, via Robot Flâneur, a screensaver from Google Streetview.

    July 13, 2011