"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."

Wednesday, 28 October 2009

Flambeau

 

A flambeau was a torch or flame – especially of the sort used in a procession. As a decoration it was a flame shape, sometimes springing from an urn. The design of that nature was used as a decorative finial from the end of the 17th century and throughout the 18th.
 

3 comments:

  1. I was trying to remember yesterday why Flambeau sounded familiar. I knew it was the name of either a villain or a detective in some book. Today I remembered - he's in Chesterton's Father Brown stories. When I checked Wikipedia I found that he was first villain, then detective. Father Brown reformed him...

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  2. Gosh, Monica, I read a lot of the Father Brown stories at one time but certainly hadn't remembered Flambeau.

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