bandeau

English

Eva Novak wearing a hairband bandeau

A woman adjusting a bandeau-style bra

Etymology

Borrowed from French bandeau, from Old French bandel, diminutive form of bande. Doublet of bendel.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbændəʊ/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbandəʊ/
• Rhymes: -ændəʊ

or as in French

• Homophone: bandeaux

Noun

bandeau (plural bandeaux or bandeaus)

1. A band for the hair.

   She wore a bandeau in her hair.

   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVIII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 221:

     You dress with a square glass before you, and a long glass behind you; your hair trusts to its own brown or black attractions, either curled or braided,—or you put on a wreath, a bunch of flowers, or a pearl bandeau;...

   • 1857, Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers:

     an elaborate tombstone over a prebendary's widow, a dead lady with a Grecian nose, a bandeau, and an intricate lace veil; lying of course on a marble sofa

   • 2002, Raoul d'Harcourt, Textiles of Ancient Peru and Their Techniques:

     Fragment of a wool cap, of which only the bandeau is well preserved. It is made in square knotting in alternate directions (see Fig. 79).

2. (medicine) A band.
   • 1998, AANS Publications Committee: Setti S. Rengachary, MD, and Edward C. Benzel, MD, Calvarial and Dural Reconstruction: Neurosurgical Topics

     The frontal bandeau is then elevated en bloc. A Bi on BC1 (Midas Rex) bit is used to create the osteotomies circumferentially.

   • 1999, Bill C. Terry, Maxime Champy, Franz Härle, et al, Atlas of Craniomaxillofacial Osteosynthesis: miniplates, microplates, and screws:

     The supraorbital bandeau is fixed to the nasal structure by a titanium [...]
     This bandeau is fixed by microplates. The median bone strip is fixed to the [...]

3. A narrow, tight bra, especially when strapless; hence, any women's top made from a similar band of fabric.
   • 2016 December 13, Jess Cartner-Morley, The Guardian:

     At Paris fashion week, a few weeks later, Kim’s sister Kendall wore a minimalist black bandeau top that echoed Kim’s look.

Derived terms

• bandikini
• bandini
• bandkini

 

Translations

hair band

band

bra

• Polish: bandeau (pl) n

French

Etymology

From Old French bandel (from bande +‎ -el).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɑ̃.do/

• Audio; “un bandeau”:

  (file)

Noun

bandeau m (plural bandeaux)

1. headband, bandeau
2. bandage
3. blindfold
4. (Toulouse, now historical) a tight headband worn for a long time, usually from youth, for the ancient folk custom of cranial deformation

Descendants

• → English: bandeau

Further reading

• “bandeau”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• endauba