"legerdemain" meaning in English

See legerdemain in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˌlɛd͡ʒ.ə.dɨˈmeɪn/ [UK], /ˈlɛd͡ʒ.əɹ.dəˌmeɪn/ [US] Audio: en-us-legerdemain.ogg [US] Forms: legerdemains [plural]
Rhymes: -eɪn Etymology: From Middle English legerdemeyn, lechardemane, from Old French léger de main (literally “light of hand”), a phrase that meant “dexterous, skillful at fooling others (especially through sleights of hand”), which was however treated as a noun when it was borrowed by late Middle English. The Modern French descendant léger de main of the Old French phrase is archaic but still sometimes found in older literature and simply means “skillful” without any connotation of sleight of hand. Etymology templates: {{inh|en|enm|legerdemeyn}} Middle English legerdemeyn, {{m|enm|lechardemane}} lechardemane, {{der|en|fro|léger de main|lit=light of hand}} Old French léger de main (literally “light of hand”), {{m|fr|léger de main}} léger de main Head templates: {{en-noun|-|s}} legerdemain (usually uncountable, plural legerdemains)
  1. Sleight of hand; "magic" trickery. Tags: uncountable, usually Categories (topical): Art Translations (sleight of hand): silmänkääntötemppu (Finnish), szemfényvesztés (Hungarian), praestīgia [feminine] (Latin), ло́вкость рук (lóvkostʹ ruk) (Russian), escamoteo [masculine] (Spanish), prestidigitación [feminine] (Spanish), taskspeleri [neuter] (Swedish), el çabukluğu (Turkish)
    Sense id: en-legerdemain-en-noun-NFBis8ji Disambiguation of Art: 99 1 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 69 31 Disambiguation of 'sleight of hand': 96 4
  2. A show of skill or deceitful ability. Tags: uncountable, usually
    Sense id: en-legerdemain-en-noun-bKgXEP4d
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: prestidigitation, sleight of hand

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for legerdemain meaning in English (4.4kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "legerdemeyn"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English legerdemeyn",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "lechardemane"
      },
      "expansion": "lechardemane",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fro",
        "3": "léger de main",
        "lit": "light of hand"
      },
      "expansion": "Old French léger de main (literally “light of hand”)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "fr",
        "2": "léger de main"
      },
      "expansion": "léger de main",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English legerdemeyn, lechardemane, from Old French léger de main (literally “light of hand”), a phrase that meant “dexterous, skillful at fooling others (especially through sleights of hand”), which was however treated as a noun when it was borrowed by late Middle English. The Modern French descendant léger de main of the Old French phrase is archaic but still sometimes found in older literature and simply means “skillful” without any connotation of sleight of hand.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "legerdemains",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-",
        "2": "s"
      },
      "expansion": "legerdemain (usually uncountable, plural legerdemains)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "leg‧er‧de‧main"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "69 31",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "99 1",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Art",
          "orig": "en:Art",
          "parents": [
            "Culture",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2021 March 8, Michael C. Dorf, “Old-School Intentions-and-Expectations Originalism in the Nominal Damages Case”, in Dorf on Law",
          "text": "Chief Justice Roberts does more or less the same thing in dissent: He practices intentions-and-expectations originalism while randomly sprinkling some public-meaning originalism fairy dust over his description of his enterprise, perhaps in the subconscious hope that no one will notice the legerdemain.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Sleight of hand; \"magic\" trickery."
      ],
      "id": "en-legerdemain-en-noun-NFBis8ji",
      "links": [
        [
          "Sleight",
          "sleight"
        ],
        [
          "hand",
          "hand"
        ],
        [
          "magic",
          "magic"
        ],
        [
          "trickery",
          "trickery"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable",
        "usually"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "96 4",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "sleight of hand",
          "word": "silmänkääntötemppu"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "96 4",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "sleight of hand",
          "word": "szemfényvesztés"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "96 4",
          "code": "la",
          "lang": "Latin",
          "sense": "sleight of hand",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "praestīgia"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "96 4",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "lóvkostʹ ruk",
          "sense": "sleight of hand",
          "word": "ло́вкость рук"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "96 4",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "sleight of hand",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "escamoteo"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "96 4",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "sleight of hand",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "prestidigitación"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "96 4",
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "sleight of hand",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "taskspeleri"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "96 4",
          "code": "tr",
          "lang": "Turkish",
          "sense": "sleight of hand",
          "word": "el çabukluğu"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1673, Gilbert Burnet, The mystery of iniquity unvailed, London, page 128",
          "text": "Certainly, that they are to this day so rife in Italy and Spain, and so scant in Britain, is a shrewd ground to apprehend Legerdemain, and forgery, in the accounts we get of their later Saints.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A show of skill or deceitful ability."
      ],
      "id": "en-legerdemain-en-noun-bKgXEP4d",
      "links": [
        [
          "skill",
          "skill"
        ],
        [
          "deceitful",
          "deceitful"
        ],
        [
          "ability",
          "ability"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable",
        "usually"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌlɛd͡ʒ.ə.dɨˈmeɪn/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈlɛd͡ʒ.əɹ.dəˌmeɪn/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-eɪn"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-legerdemain.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/7b/En-us-legerdemain.ogg/En-us-legerdemain.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/En-us-legerdemain.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (US)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "prestidigitation"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "sleight of hand"
    }
  ],
  "word": "legerdemain"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English 4-syllable words",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms derived from Middle English",
    "English terms derived from Old French",
    "English terms inherited from Middle English",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English uncountable nouns",
    "Rhymes:English/eɪn",
    "Rhymes:English/eɪn/4 syllables",
    "en:Art"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "legerdemeyn"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English legerdemeyn",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "lechardemane"
      },
      "expansion": "lechardemane",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fro",
        "3": "léger de main",
        "lit": "light of hand"
      },
      "expansion": "Old French léger de main (literally “light of hand”)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "fr",
        "2": "léger de main"
      },
      "expansion": "léger de main",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English legerdemeyn, lechardemane, from Old French léger de main (literally “light of hand”), a phrase that meant “dexterous, skillful at fooling others (especially through sleights of hand”), which was however treated as a noun when it was borrowed by late Middle English. The Modern French descendant léger de main of the Old French phrase is archaic but still sometimes found in older literature and simply means “skillful” without any connotation of sleight of hand.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "legerdemains",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-",
        "2": "s"
      },
      "expansion": "legerdemain (usually uncountable, plural legerdemains)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "leg‧er‧de‧main"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2021 March 8, Michael C. Dorf, “Old-School Intentions-and-Expectations Originalism in the Nominal Damages Case”, in Dorf on Law",
          "text": "Chief Justice Roberts does more or less the same thing in dissent: He practices intentions-and-expectations originalism while randomly sprinkling some public-meaning originalism fairy dust over his description of his enterprise, perhaps in the subconscious hope that no one will notice the legerdemain.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Sleight of hand; \"magic\" trickery."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Sleight",
          "sleight"
        ],
        [
          "hand",
          "hand"
        ],
        [
          "magic",
          "magic"
        ],
        [
          "trickery",
          "trickery"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable",
        "usually"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1673, Gilbert Burnet, The mystery of iniquity unvailed, London, page 128",
          "text": "Certainly, that they are to this day so rife in Italy and Spain, and so scant in Britain, is a shrewd ground to apprehend Legerdemain, and forgery, in the accounts we get of their later Saints.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A show of skill or deceitful ability."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "skill",
          "skill"
        ],
        [
          "deceitful",
          "deceitful"
        ],
        [
          "ability",
          "ability"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable",
        "usually"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌlɛd͡ʒ.ə.dɨˈmeɪn/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈlɛd͡ʒ.əɹ.dəˌmeɪn/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-eɪn"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-legerdemain.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/7b/En-us-legerdemain.ogg/En-us-legerdemain.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/En-us-legerdemain.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (US)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "prestidigitation"
    },
    {
      "word": "sleight of hand"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "sleight of hand",
      "word": "silmänkääntötemppu"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "sleight of hand",
      "word": "szemfényvesztés"
    },
    {
      "code": "la",
      "lang": "Latin",
      "sense": "sleight of hand",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "praestīgia"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "lóvkostʹ ruk",
      "sense": "sleight of hand",
      "word": "ло́вкость рук"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "sleight of hand",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "escamoteo"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "sleight of hand",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "prestidigitación"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "sleight of hand",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "taskspeleri"
    },
    {
      "code": "tr",
      "lang": "Turkish",
      "sense": "sleight of hand",
      "word": "el çabukluğu"
    }
  ],
  "word": "legerdemain"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.