Crossword clues for lavalier
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
kind of ornament that hangs around the neck, from French lavallière, a kind of tie, after Louise Françoise de La Baume Le Blanc de La Vallière, Duchesse de La Vallière (1644-1710), mistress of Louis XIV from 1661-1667.
Wiktionary
n. 1 An item of jewellery consisting of a pendant, sometimes with one stone, suspended from a necklace. 2 A kind of microphone intended to clip onto the lapel at about the level of the pendant on a lavalier.
WordNet
n. jewelled pendant worn on a chain around the neck [syn: lavaliere, lavalliere]
Wikipedia
A lavalier or lavaliere or lavalliere is an item of jewelry consisting of a pendant, sometimes with one stone, suspended from a necklace.
The style was popularized by the Duchesse de la Vallière, a mistress of King Louis XIV of France. A lavalier can be recognized most for its drop (that usually consist of a stone and/or a chandelier type of drop) which is attached to the chain and not attached by a bail.
According to Hans Nadelhoffer, Cartier: Jewelers Extraordinary (1984), p. 50: "A special form of necklace produced around 1900 was the lavallière, an imaginative allusion to a fashion named for the actress Ève Lavallière, suspending two overlapping pendants, generally of different lengths. The necklace itself often consisted of a simple silk cord with diamond sliding motifs, in which the imaginative end motifs were often intertwined. Princess George of Greece (Marie Bonaparte) received a lavallière with two diamond fir cones, the Tsarina of Russia one with amethyst acorns. Eve Lavallière made her debut in 1891 at the Théâtre des Variétés, having previously worked in a hat factory, tying ribbons. The cravats which were produced in this way were called lavallières and provided a stage-name for the actress, whose real name was Eve Ferroglio. She died in a convent in 1929."
"Lavallière" is still the French name for an ascot tie.
Later, the American collegiate fraternity system ("Greeks") adopted a lavalier which contained the fraternity letters as part of or within the pendant to symbolize involvement in an ongoing romantic relationship which may become a long-term relationship resulting in becoming "pinned" (woman receiving the man's fraternity pin to wear), engaged and married.
Usage examples of "lavalier".
On a pair of tree stumps at the end of the room sat Cellophane and Lavalier, arrayed in rich muslin.
As he stood, as if in a trance, Lavalier turned to him and saw him toying with the Ring and wondering at her great beauty.
Leukemia Lavalier, who achieved stardom in ‘Nimble Necrophile,’ now in possession of precious red-star carbuncle.
Better Leukemia Lavalier should have used this instead of a cannon to protect her red-star carbuncle.
The various cables for these devices, in tightly woven sleeves of burgundy silk, snaked up to a floral eyebolt suspended from the central lavalier, where they then swung to a polished brass plate, bearing the insignia of the Post Office, which was set into the wainscoting.
Thinking quickly, he remembered the magic snowglobe given him by Lavalier.