What is "fleuron"

Fleuron \Fleu`ron"\, n. [F., fr. OF. floron. Cf. Floroon.] A flower-shaped ornament, esp. one terminating an object or forming one of a series, as a knob of a cover to a dish, or a flower-shaped part in a necklace.

"flower-shaped ornament," late 14c., floroun, from Old French floron (Modern French fleuron), from flor "flower" (see flower (n.)). Spelling modified 17c. in English based on French.

n. 1 an ornament or knob in the shape of a flower 2 (context architecture English) the small flower at the centre of each side of a Corinthian abacus; a flos

A Fleuron is one of several types of flower-like ornament used in various areas of art and design, including:

• Fleuron (architectural), an architectural element
• Fleuron (typography), a typographical element ❧
• Fleuron (bookbinding), an element in gold-tooled bindings
• The Fleuron, a British journal of typography

A fleuron is a flower shaped ornament, and in architecture may have a number of meanings. (1) It is a collective noun for the ornamental termination at the ridge of a roof such as a crop, finial or épi. (2) It is also a form of stylised late gothic decoration in the form of a four-leafed square, often seen on crockets and cavetto mouldings. (3) It can be the ornament in the middle of each concave face of a Corinthian abacus. (4) Finally it can be a form of Anthemion, the decorative Greek floral decoration.

A fleuron is a typographic element, or glyph, used either as a punctuation mark or as an ornament for typographic compositions. Fleurons are stylized forms of flowers or leaves; the term derives from the Old French word , for flower. Robert Bringhurst in The Elements of Typographic Style calls the forms " horticultural dingbats." It is also known as a printers' flower, or more formally as an aldus leaf (after Italian Renaissance printer Aldus Manutius), hedera leaf (" ivy leaf"), or simply hedera symbol.