passe-partout

See also: passepartout and Passepartout

English

Etymology

From French passe-partout.

Noun

passe-partout (plural passe-partouts)

1. That by which one can pass anywhere; a safe-conduct.

   Synonym: safe-conduct

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

2. A master key.

   Synonym: passkey

   • 1998, Paul Cilliers, Complexity and Postmodernism: Understanding Complex Systems, Psychology Press (→ISBN), page 112:

     The traditional (or modern) way of confronting complexity was to find a secure point of reference that could serve as foundation, a passe-partout, a master key from which everything else could be derived.

3. (obsolete) A light picture frame or mat of cardboard, wood, etc., usually put between the picture and the glass, and sometimes serving for several pictures.

   Synonyms: matte, matting

   • 1933, William Crookes, T. A. Malone, George Shadbolt, J. Traill Taylor, William Blanchard Bolton, Thomas Bedding, The British Journal of Photography

     A new introduction for use in conjunction with passe-partout framing is a series of corner pieces which are readily folded round the corners of the finished passe-partout, giving it a certain added effect and slight embellishment.

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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.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 passe-partout in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

---

Dutch

Alternative forms

• passepartout

Etymology

From French passe-partout.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɑs.pɑrˈtu/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pas‧se-par‧tout

Noun

passe-partout m (plural passe-partouts, diminutive passe-partoutje n)

1. mat (thick paper or paperboard border used to inset and center the contents of a frame)

---

French

Alternative forms

• passepartout

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pas.paʁ.tu/

Noun

passe-partout m (plural passe-partouts)

1. master key

   Synonyms: passe, rossignol

   • 1849, Alexandre Dumas, “Le Chat, l’huissier et le squelette”, in Les Mille et Un Fantômes:

     Je visitai deux ou trois amis, puis je revins à la maison, où je rentrai, grâce à un passe-partout.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

2. (art, photography) matte (decorative border around a picture)
   • 1915 August 25, Guillaume Apollinaire, Lettres à Madeleine:

     Ce dessin [de Marie Laurencin] est ravissant et extrêmement touchant, faites-lui mettre une petite baguette très étroite et un verre. Il est à nous et c’est un petit chef-d’œuvre. Il ne faut point de passe-partout et que l’encadreur n’en rogne rien, laissant visible tout le blanc.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

3. type of brush
4. (dated) Ellipsis of scie passe-partout; two-man crosscut saw

   Synonym: passant

Descendants

• → Dutch: passe-partout
• → English: passe-partout
• → Georgian: პასპარტუ (ṗasṗarṭu)
• → German: Passepartout
• → Hungarian: paszpartu
• → Spanish: pasaportú

Further reading

• “passe-partout” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
• passepartout on the French Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^fr
• passe-partout (encadrement) on the French Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^fr
• scie passe-partout on the French Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^fr

---

Italian

Alternative forms

• passepartout

Etymology

From French passe-partout.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pasparˈtu/

Noun

passe-partout m (invariable)

1. skeleton key, master key
2. mat (thick paper or paperboard border used to inset and center the contents of a frame)