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easel

UK/ˈiː.z(ə)l/US/ˈi.zəl/
nounB2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,128 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: easels

An easel is the three-legged stand that holds a painting while it is made. Set up the easel, on the easel, a studio easel.

Working upright on one lets the painter step back, which is most of the point, and painting flat distorts what you see. The word comes from the Dutch for a donkey, since the frame carries the load — the same joke as a sawhorse in English.

Unknown · Public domain

Definitions of easel

  1. 1nouneaselThe three-legged stand that holds a painting while it is made.B2

    “The painter set up her easel on the hill overlooking the harbour.”

easel is a stand.

Where it comes from

Dutch ezel means a donkey, from Latin asellus, a little ass. The frame carries the load like a beast.

  1. Latin

    asellus — young ass or small donkey

  2. Proto-West Germanic

    *asil

  3. Middle Dutch

    esel — donkey

  4. Dutch

    ezel — donkey; easel

  5. English, today

    easel

Built from

  • asinus · Latin — ass, donkey

Borrowed from Dutch ezel (“donkey; easel”), from Middle Dutch esel (“donkey”), from Proto-West Germanic asil, from Latin asellus (“young ass or small donkey”), diminutive of asinus (“ass, donkey”), ultimately from an unknown source in Asia Minor. Essentially, the stand that a painting is placed on is being likened to a donkey carrying a burden; compare horse (“a frame with legs used to support something”), as in clotheshorse and sawhorse.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Music, Art & Culture

Practise this word

easel in the wild

  • Artists' easels are still typically made of wood, in functional designs that have changed little for centuries, or even millennia, though new materials and designs exist.

    Easel

  • In a photographic darkroom, an easel is used to keep the photographic paper in a flat or upright (horizontal, big-size enlarging) position to the enlarger.

    Easel

  • The Hamilton Kerr Institute is a branch of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridgeshire, England, dedicated to the study and conservation of easel paintings.

    Hamilton Kerr Institute

  • The painting depicts an artist standing on the left side of his studio, gazing at an easel on the right side of his studio.

    The Artist in his Studio

  • The artist is notably standing across the room from the easel, which is turned away from the viewer.

    The Artist in his Studio

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.