tourbillon

tourbillon

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French tourbillon (“whirlwind”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌtʊə(ɹ)bɪˈjɒn/

Noun

tourbillon (plural tourbillons)

1. A rotating frame, containing the escapement of a clock or watch, that attempts to compensate for the effects of gravity.
   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 514:

     Time was vulnerable to the force of gravity. So Breguet came up with the tourbillon, which isolated the balance wheel and escarpment off on a little platform of their own

2. A whirlwind.
3. A kind of firework that gyrates in the air.
4. Any part of a machine with a spiral movement.

Translations

rotating frame, containing the escapement of a clock

Dutch: tourbillon m Japanese: トゥールビヨン (tūrubiyon) Russian: турбийо́н (ru) m (turbijón)

whirlwind

Bulgarian: вихрушка (bg) f (vihruška) Dutch: wervelwind (nl) m

kind of firework that gyrates in the air

any part of a machine with a spiral movement

Anagrams

• bunitrolol

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French

Etymology

From Old French torbeil +‎ -on.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tuʁ.bi.jɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

tourbillon m (plural tourbillons)

1. whirlwind
2. eddy, whirlpool
3. (physics) vortex
4. (figuratively) whirl, whirlwind, maelstrom
5. tourbillon

Derived terms

• tourbillonnaire
• tourbillonner

Descendants

• → English: tourbillon
• → Romanian: turbion

Further reading

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