planchette
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of planchette
From French, dating back to 1855–60; see origin at planch, -ette
Explanation
A planchette is a small triangular board used in automatic writing, a phenomenon associated with spiritualism. Although planchettes today are most commonly associated with the three-legged plastic moving window that comes with Ouija boards, the original devices predate the Ouija and included a pencil in place of one of the legs. Anyone from a psychic medium to curious parlor game player would then lay their fingertips atop the board, and the pencil would move, seemingly without any direction from the user, writing out answers to questions asked aloud. The word came into English in 1860 as the name of this device. In French, planchette means "little plank."
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.
“Now. Planchette was quite insistent about a nun. Have you learned anything about a nun, John?”
From "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson
Gerster in Regensburg claimed to have invented the Psychography, but Szapary in Paris and Cohnfeld in Berlin discovered at the same time the curious instrument known to us as Planchette.
From Modern Magic by Vere, Maximilian Schele de
The little instrument Planchette, however, is not essential; it is used because, being placed on casters, it is more easily moved.
From Telepathy and the Subliminal Self by Mason, R. Osgood
One person can use Planchette alone, though the experiment is oftener carried out as described above because unintended movements are more readily produced by two operators.
From Spiritualism and the New Psychology An Explanation of Spiritualist Phenomena and Beliefs in Terms of Modern Knowledge by Culpin, Millais
Yes; but then you have Your hunting mansion at Planchette.
From The Dramas of Victor Hugo: Mary Tudor, Marion de Lorme, Esmeralda by Hugo, Victor
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.
