Other forms: trapezes
A trapeze is a bar hung on ropes for swinging performers. The flying trapeze, a trapeze artist, swing on the trapeze.
The name comes from the shape: the bar, the two ropes and the beam above make a trapezium. The flying kind involves letting go and being caught, and timing is everything — the catcher takes the wrists, not the hands.
1nountrapezeA bar hung on ropes for swinging performers.
“The acrobat swung from the trapeze high above the circus ring.”
trapeze is equipment.
French trapeze comes from Latin trapezium, from Greek trapezion, a small table — the shape made by the bar, ropes and beam.
Proto-Indo-European
*ped-
Latin
trapezium
French
trapèze
English, today
trapeze
From French trapèze, from Latin trapezium. a doublet of trapezium.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA