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▪ I. vignette, n.|vɪˈnjɛt, vɪˈnɛt| [a. F. vignette: see vinet.] 1. a. An ornamental or decorative design on a blank space in a book or among printed matter, esp. at the beginning or end of a chapter or other division, usually one of small size or occupying a small proportion of the space; spec. any embellishment, illustration, or picture uninclosed in a border, or having the edges shading off into the surrounding paper; a head-piece or tail-piece. Cf. vinet 2.
1751H. Walpole Let. to G. Montagu 13 June, He is drawing vignettes for his [Gray's] Odes. 1802Dibdin Introd. Classics 33 note, The engravings have a spirit and brilliance equal to the best finished French vignettes. 1820T. Hodgson Ess. Stereotype Printing 132 In the American bank notes, the vignette, words, and writing, usual in such notes, are surrounded by a curiously engraved border. 1866Geo. Eliot F. Holt iii, An excellent guide-book and descriptive cards, surmounted by vignettes, were printed. 1880Print. Trades Jrnl. xxx. 5 Charming vignettes, and head and tail pieces for bookwork. b. An ornamental design, drawing, or picture in a manuscript or written document.
1830Baroness Bunsen in Hare Life (1879) I. ix. 347 How many vignettes did I make in my idea for my intended letter to my mother! 1860Adler Prov. Poet. xvi. 352 On the vignettes of the old manuscripts he is represented in the costume of a traveller. 1875H. James Transatlantic Sk. 213 Assisi, in the January twilight, looked like a vignette out of some brown old missal. 2. a. A photographic portrait, showing only the head or the head and shoulders, with the edges of the print shading off into the background.
1862Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit. II. No. 3182, Untouched and coloured photographic portraits, vignettes, cartes de visite. 1869Eng. Mech. 17 Dec. 328/2 Our present style of vignettes, and the former style of cartes-de-visite, are..very pretty. 1877Mrs. Forrester Mignon I. 296 He found a coloured vignette of her that pleased him. b. A brief verbal description of a person, place, etc.; a short descriptive or evocative episode in a play, etc.
1880E. Simcox Diary 28 Mar. in K. A. McKenzie Edith Simcox & George Eliot (1961) iii. 61, I have thought..of writing a little book of ‘Vignettes’. 1901[see thumb-nail 2]. 1934Punch 19 Dec. 698/1 Its writer gets and provides what entertainment she can from them—witness her amusing vignette of the unfortunate Habibullah. 1957Practical Wireless XXXIII. 558/1 The play was supposed to evoke the Edwardian era in a series of tiny vignettes interspersed with ‘instrumental effects’. 1958Times 12 Aug. 10/3 Miss Maria Lapinska, as his [dancing] partner came nearest to touching the heart in a wartime vignette entitled 1940. 1980Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts Mar. 226/1 Let me quote one vignette. †3. (See quot.) Obs.—1
1790Bruce Trav. I. Introd. p. ix, Vignettes, or little ornamental shrubs, which generally hang from and adorn the projections and edges of the several members [of ruined architecture], are finely expressed. 4. attrib. in various senses, as vignette head, vignette moulding, vignette view, etc.
1790Loiterer 2 Jan. 5 Three..volumes in duodecimo; which, with..a handsome vignette frontispiece, will cut a respectable figure. 1842Francis Dict. Arts, Vignette moulding, a moulding ornamented or enriched with vine leaves, grapes, or tendrils. 1869H. F. Tozer Highl. Turkey I. 129 The prettiest effects were produced by the vignette views, seen through the depressions. 1872Ruskin Fors Clav. xviii. ⁋12, I can get a pretty little long vignette view of the roof of the Pantheon..through a chink between the veneering and the freestone. 1892Photogr. Ann. II. 501 Placing eight 3/4-lengths, eight vignette heads and so on together. ▪ II. vignette, v.|vɪˈnjɛt, vɪˈnɛt| [f. prec.] 1. a. trans. To make a vignette of; spec. in Photogr., to produce (a picture or portrait) in the style of a vignette by softening away or shading off the edges, leaving only the central portion.
1853De Morgan in Graves Life Hamilton (1889) III. 478, I shall remember to have an Hippopotamus neatly vignetted for the title-page. 1878Abney Photogr. 246 For outdoor portraiture an angle of a wall facing the north with a background formed by a blanket is suitable for producing pictures that can be vignetted. 1885C. G. W. Lock Workshop Receipts Ser. iv. 401/2 A very good enlargement is made by vignetting the picture with the opal. transf. and fig.1883Saintsbury in Academy 5 May 307/2 Forgetting that its chief function is to finish off and vignette isolated sketches of manner, character, and thought with more precision..than is possible or suitable in prose. 1895Athenæum 5 Oct. 451/1 How happily is autumn vignetted here and there! b. To take in or introduce as a vignette.
1892Photogr. Ann. II. 54 Keep moving the mask so as to vignette in the clouds. 2. Optics. To modify so as to give rise to vignetting of an image.
1945Jrnl. Optical Soc. Amer. XXXV. 499/1 Otherwise, light rays coming from those points of the light source farthest from the optical axis will not spread out over the entire striation field but will be vignetted by the condenser aperture. 1961Jrnl. Sci. Instruments XXXVIII. 93/1 At the edge of the field of {pm}3½°, the meridial section of the aperture is vignetted to about 80% of its axial value. Over the vignetted aperture, both the meridian plane and secondary plane sections of the emergent wave front lie [etc.]. 1973Optical Engin. XII. 20/2 A 1 mm diameter pinhole in 1·5 mm lead severely vignettes the field off-axis. Hence viˈgnetted ppl. a.
1867Routledge's Ev. Boy's Ann. March 169 An album of ‘vignetted’ heads of all my bird friends. 1886Athenæum 18 Dec. 831/3 The Wrath of the Fay,..with vignetted designs in outline. 1961[see vignette v. 2]. |