cynosure

WOTD – 16 March 2010    

English

Etymology

From French cynosure (“Ursa Minor; Polaris”), from Latin Cynosūra (“Ursa Minor”), from Ancient Greek Κυνόσουρα (Kunosoura, “Ursa Minor”), literally “dog’s tail’, from κυνός (kunos, “dog's”) + οὐρά (oura, “tail”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈsʌɪnəʊsjə/

  Hyphenation: cy‧no‧sure

Noun

cynosure (plural cynosures)

1. (usually capitalized) Ursa Minor or Polaris, the North Star, used as a guide by navigators.
2. (figuratively) That which serves to guide or direct; a guiding star.

   let faith be your cynosure to walk by

3. Something that is the center of attention; an object that serves as a focal point of attraction and admiration.
   • 1852, Alice Cary, Clovernook, or Recollections of our Neighborhood in the West:

     The rooms were brilliant with lights and flowers, and gaiety and beauty, and intellect; and the lately shrinking country girl was the cynosure of all eyes---the most envied, the most dreaded, the most admired, the most loved.

   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 306:

     With anglophobia driving out anglophilia, the king – as during the Seven Years War – came to represent the very cynosure of patriotic zeal.

Translations

Ursa Minor — see Ursa Minor

North Star — see North Star

that which serves to guide or direct

• Finnish: johtotähti (fi)
• French: tramontane (fr), guide (fr), mentor (fr), chien d'aveugle (fig.) (fr), parangon (fr)

• Italian: tramontana (it), guida (it)
• Russian: путеводная звезда (ru) (putevodnaja zvezda)
• Spanish: tramontana (es), guia (es), lazarillo (es) m (figuratively)

something that is the center of attention; an object that serves as a focal point of attraction and admiration

• Finnish: huomion keskipiste (fi)
• French: point de mire (fr), cible (fr), foyer (fr)
• German: Anziehungspunkt (de) m

• Russian: центр внимания (ru) (centr vnimanija), средоточие внимания (ru) (sredotočije vnimanija)
• Spanish: blanco de las miradas (es), foco (es)

See also

• Cynosure in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.