frontispiece

From Middle French frontispice, from Latin frontispicium, from frōns (“forehead”) + specere (“look at”). Spelling altered due to folk etymology, influenced by piece.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɹʌn.tɪˌspiːs/

frontispiece (plural frontispieces)

1. (publishing) An illustration that is on the page before the title page of a book, a section of one, or a magazine.
2. (archaic, publishing) The title page of a book.
3. (architecture) A façade, especially an ornamental one.
4. (architecture) A small ornamental pediment, especially at the top of a window or door.

frontispiece (third-person singular simple present frontispieces, present participle frontispiecing, simple past and past participle frontispieced)

1. (transitive, rare) To supply with a frontispiece.

   The novel was frontispieced with a portrait of the author.

• “Frontispiece” in Michael Quinion, Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, 2004, →ISBN.