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Increase your vocabulary and you’ll make your writing much more precise. That’s why I provide a word of the week. Today’s word: vitrine.
It’s not often I stumble across a noun I find difficult to define (unless, of course, it’s a scientific name for an animal or plant.) But here’s one that stumped me recently: vitrine.
I encountered it in the historical novel, The Painted Girls, by Cathy Marie Buchanan. Set in 19th century Paris, the book tells the story of three young sisters, seeking careers as ballet dancers after the death of their father and the absinthe-soaked decline of their mother. The painter Edward Degas is involved as a significant character.
Here is the sentence in which the word appeared:
This vitrine, Monsieur Degas, is not enough for me!
Context didn’t help me, so I looked up the word. Turns out it means a glass case, usually made for storing art work such as sculpture or jewellry. Your own home might even contain a vitrine if you have one of those large glass cases for displaying china or glassware.
I guessed the word was French, not just because the novel was set in Paris, but also because the “ine” ending seemed particularly Francophone to me. I was right. The word dates back to 1880, and comes from the French vitre, meaning “glass.” The word vitreous, meaning “glassy” or “clear,” comes from exactly the same root of course.
