vignette
[vin-yet]
- a decorative design or small illustration used on the title page of a book or at the beginning or end of a chapter.
- an engraving, drawing, photograph, or the like that is shaded off gradually at the edges so as to leave no definite line at the border.
- a decorative design representing branches, leaves, grapes, or the like, as in a manuscript.
- any small, pleasing picture or view.
- a small, graceful literary sketch.
- Photography. to finish (a picture, photograph, etc.) in the manner of a vignette.
Origin of vignette
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for vignetting
Historical Examples
There is another way of vignetting the sky into the landscape, which is, perhaps, better and more convenient.
The Art and Practice of Silver PrintingH. P. Robinson
We believe that the greater part of the vignetting done in England is by this clumsy, costly, and difficult method.
The Art and Practice of Silver PrintingH. P. Robinson
Wooden grooves may be glued along the top of the vignetting frame, into which cards containing other apertures can be slipped.
The Art and Practice of Silver PrintingH. P. Robinson
This restriction is known as the “vignetting” action of the entrance luke.
The next methods of vignetting are dependent on simple laws of optics.
The Art and Practice of Silver PrintingH. P. Robinson
vignetting
- the technique of producing a photographic vignette, esp a portrait, by progressively reducing the amount of light falling on the photographic surface towards the edges
- the reduction in area of a light beam passing through a camera lens as the obliquity of the beam is increased
vignette
- a small illustration placed at the beginning or end of a book or chapter
- a short graceful literary essay or sketch
- a photograph, drawing, etc, with edges that are shaded off
- architect a carved ornamentation that has a design based upon tendrils, leaves, etc
- any small endearing scene, view, picture, etc
- to finish (a photograph, picture, etc) with a fading border in the form of a vignette
- to decorate with vignettes
- to portray in or as in a vignette
Word Origin
C18: from French, literally: little vine, from vigne vine; with reference to the vine motif frequently used in embellishments to a text
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for vignetting
vignette
n.
1751, "decorative design," originally a design in the form of vine tendrils around the borders of a book page, especially a picture page, from French vignette, from Old French diminutive of vigne "vineyard" (see vine). Sense transferred from the border to the picture itself, then (1853) to a type of small photographic portrait with blurred edges very popular mid-19c. Meaning "literary sketch" is first recorded 1880, probably from the photographic sense.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper