tonsorial
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of tonsorial
1805–15; < Latin tōnsōri ( us ) of shaving ( tond ( ēre ) to shave + -tōrius -tory 1, with dt > s ) + -al 1
Explanation
Use the adjective tonsorial when you need a fancy way to talk about barbers. Want to cut hair when you grow up? Tell your parents you're going into the tonsorial field. Even though tonsorial sounds like it has something to do with tonsils, the words are completely unrelated. Tonsorial comes from the Latin tonsorius, "of or pertaining to shearing or shaving." You're most likely to encounter this adjective in a humorous or overly formal context, and it can describe anything that has to do with cutting hair or shaving.
Vocabulary lists containing tonsorial
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Tonsorial scenery . . . generous whiskers . . . chin shrubbery . . . soup moustache.
From Time Magazine Archive
At Northfield, Massachusetts, is a college at which men are taught and trained, just as men are drilled at a Tonsorial College, in every phase of this pleasing episcopopography.
From Love, Life & Work Being a Book of Opinions Reasonably Good-Natured Concerning How to Attain the Highest Happiness for One's Self with the Least Possible Harm to Others by Hubbard, Elbert
A large plate glass window in front bore the sign, "Alphonse Perrier, Tonsorial Parlors."
From The Ivory Snuff Box by Kummer, Frederic Arnold
He thought, though, that after the training he had received from the superior "Tonsorial Parlours" where he had been employed, he had but to ask for a place and he would be gladly accepted.
From The Sport of the Gods by Dunbar, Paul Laurence
"Then why do you not apply at the Tonsorial Administrative Office of the level for permission to change?"
From City of Endless Night by Hastings, Milo M. (Milo Milton)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
