flâneur

American  

[flah-nur, flah-nœr] / flɑˈnɜr, flɑˈnœr /

noun

French.

• flâneurs
  plural

1. a person who lounges or strolls around in a seemingly aimless way; an idler or loafer.

   the flâneur, that cool, aloof observer of urban society.

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flâneur British  

/ flɑnœr /

noun

1. an idler or loafer

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• flâneurs
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of flâneur

First recorded in 1850–55; from French: literally, “loafer, idler, man about town,” equivalent to flân-, stem of flâner “to waste time” + -eur ( def. ); cf. flânerie ( def. )

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

flâneur flâneurs

Is the dog a fellow flâneur in the Weimar city, a mirror of its owner, or perhaps his alter ego?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026

The French future belonged to the flâneur, the man of sensibility, at home in the crowd.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 15, 2026

Driving around town with his friend and travel companion Cicero, in Cicero’s little red roadster, he becomes the flâneur with wheels, greeting the past as he goes.

From New York Times ● Feb. 19, 2018

In a show titled “Urban Mapping,” it’s inevitable that someone would invoke the French idea of the flâneur, whose avocation is simply to walk and experience the city.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 5, 2017

Such oft-recurring words as flâneur, liaison, badinage, etc., have no exact synonymes in other tongues.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 05, No. 29, March, 1860 by Various

We have watched a restless day of rest in the park of the title, where an assortment of flâneurs and poseurs have become steadily more fractious and discordant.

From New York Times ● Feb. 23, 2017

Visitors to the exhibition become flâneurs themselves as they meander through 11 multimedia spaces of dreams and fantasies.

From New York Times ● Oct. 2, 2015

It’s not surprising that these 21st-century flâneurs are different creatures from their 19th-century predecessors.

From Salon ● Feb. 4, 2013

It is perhaps not surprising that Sebald’s characters — most of whom are travelers or flâneurs of one kind or another — write as if steeped in melancholy.

From Salon ● Feb. 4, 2013

The men and women whom I met in the street escape description; the flâneurs of the Unter den Linden are exactly like the flâneurs of the Boulevard des Italiens.

From Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 5 Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Switzerland, Part 1 by Francis W. (Francis Whiting) Halsey

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