easel
/ˈi.zəl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.68 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An upright frame, typically on three legs, for displaying or supporting something, such as an artist's canvas.
Example Sentences
- "Chevalet, (chaſſis de bois ſur lequel les Peintres poſent leurs Tableaux quand ils travaillent) a Painter's Eaſel."
- "His [Raphael's] eaſel works ſtand in a lower degree of eſtimation; for though he continually, till the day of his death, embelliſhed his works more and more with the addition of theſe lower ornaments, which entirely make the merit of ſome; yet he never arrived at ſuch perfection as to make him an object of imitation."
- "[H]is constant advice to students was to copy nature, and if they wished to draw a tree well, to place their easels in a field, and copy the tree exactly as it stood before them."
- "[O]ur little craft [a canoe] carried several packs of Indian dresses and other articles, which I had purchased of the Indians; and also my canvass and easel, and our culinary articles, which were few and simple; […]"
- "Three sons … three! And not one sees fit to throw in with the old man. No … we have an easel painter, a stuntman, and a … a …"
- "It would also form part of a new carriage design, which had started out on Swindon drawing office easels two years earlier."
Etymology
Borrowed from Dutch ezel (“donkey; easel”), from Middle Dutch esel (“donkey”), from Proto-West Germanic *asil, from Latin asellus (“young ass or small donkey”), diminutive of asinus (“ass, donkey”), ultimately from an unknown source in Asia Minor. Essentially, the stand that a painting is placed on is being likened to a donkey carrying a burden; compare horse (“a frame with legs used to support something”), as in clotheshorse and sawhorse.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: ezel, esel, *asil, asellus
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈi.zəl/
- British English: /ˈiː.z(ə)l/
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
bench easel
easel painting