nombril

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French nombril.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnɒmbɹɪl/
• IPA^(key): /ˈnɑmbɹəl/

Noun

nombril (plural nombrils)

1. (heraldry) A point halfway between the fess point and the middle base point of an escutcheon.

Synonyms

• navel point

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “nombril”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

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French

Etymology

From Old French nonbril, from Old French nonbril, from Vulgar Latin *umbilīculus (compare Occitan embonilh), from Latin umbilīcus, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃nobʰilos (“navel”), from *h₃nebʰ-. The initial n is probably due to an interference from possessive determiners: Old French mun onbril (“my navel”) → mun nonbril (i.e. a rebracketing). Compare the development of Catalan llombrígol, Romanian buric. Doublet of ombilic, a borrowing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nɔ̃.bʁil/

• audio:

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Noun

nombril m (plural nombrils)

1. navel, belly button
2. middle

Derived terms

• nombrilisme

Related terms

• ombilic

Further reading

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

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Middle French

Etymology

From Old French nonbril, from Latin *umbiliculus, from Latin umbilicus.

Noun

nombril m (plural nombrils)

1. belly button

Descendants

• French: nombril