fontange

[ fawn-tahnzh ]

noun

, plural fon·tanges [faw, n, -, tahnzh].

1. Often fontanges. commode ( def 4 ).

Word History and Origins

Origin of fontange¹

1680–90; < French, named after Marie Angélique de Scorraille de Roussilles, Duchess of Fontanges (1661–81), mistress of Louis XIV

Example Sentences

"There are M. le Marquis de la Varenne, and M. de Vitry," he said slowly, "and M. de Vic, and M. Erard, the engineer, and M. de Fontange, and----" "Pardieu!"

From Project Gutenberg

Among other variations the costume of the time of William III. is sometimes very ludicrously adopted, especially in the frontispiece, where the author is represented writing at a desk, and near him two figures of a man in a full bottom wig, and a woman with a mask and a perpendicular cap in several stories, usually called a Fontange, both having skeleton faces.

From Project Gutenberg

Fontange, fong-tanzh′, n. a tall head-dress worn in the 17th and 18th centuries.

From Project Gutenberg

I saw him dancing with Madame Fontange, whom both Francezka and I had seen him chasing up the great staircase two days before.

From Project Gutenberg

Madame Fontange, one of the beauties of the court, rushed up the stairway laughing and disheveled, her hoop awry, and her satin robe half torn off her back by a rascal of a little page, who had seized her and who was calling loudly for Monsieur Cheverny.

From Project Gutenberg