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

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. )

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

Our stories are packed with plots and characters, but the flâneur proposes that paying attention is the only thing literature needs to do.

From New York Times ● Jul. 13, 2021

Kazin’s younger self is a latter-day flâneur — observing the familiar neighborhood with the impartiality of an outsider as he walked its streets.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 4, 2021

For the perfect flâneur, for the passionate observer, it is an immense pleasure to choose his home in number, change, motion, in the fleeting and the infinite.

From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 4 by Mabie, Hamilton Wright

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

People who inhabit through motion include desert-dwellers, obliged to move with herds in search of feeding grounds and markets, and 19th-century flâneurs, gentleman strollers in search of fascination.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 11, 2012

Here was a man who could have enjoyed art among the artists, who could have been the wittiest of all the flâneurs; who could have made epigrams like diamonds and drunk music like wine.

From George Bernard Shaw by Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)