film noir
[nwahr]
- a motion picture with an often grim urban setting, photographed in somber tones and permeated by a feeling of disillusionment, pessimism, and despair.
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Origin of film noir
1955–60; < French: literally, black film
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for film noir
Contemporary Examples of film noir
Mr. Wright attributes this film-noir fantasy to Garry Scarff, who was never a Scientologist.
Pouw insists that this anecdote is nothing more than “film-noir fantasy” and that Scarff is a “self-admitted inveterate liar.”
film noir
- a gangster thriller, made esp in the 1940s in Hollywood characterized by contrasty lighting and often somewhat impenetrable plots
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Word Origin for film noir
C20: French, literally: black film
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 film noir
1958, from French, literally "black film," from noir (12c.), from Latin niger (see Negro).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper