lunette

A lunette is a word with a few different uses, but a curved, moon-like shape runs through most of them. In older writing, it can mean small, old-fashioned spectacles, especially the kind linked with earlier styles of eyewear.

More often, in architecture, it means a curved or half-moon-shaped space on a wall, or sometimes a window set into that shape, often above a door or another opening. In military history, it can also mean a small detached fortification built in front of a larger defense work. So, depending on the context, it may refer to eyewear, part of a building, or a defensive structure.

The word "lunette" comes from the French word for "little moon," and that moon-like shape explains many of its meanings. In older English, it can refer to spectacles or small eyeglasses. This sense is now uncommon, but it appears in historical writing and descriptions of older fashion or equipment.

In architecture, a lunette is usually a crescent-shaped or semicircular space on a wall. It may appear above a door, above a window, or under a vault, and it is often decorated with painting, carving, or other ornament. The word can also refer to a window that fills that curved space. This is one of the most common modern uses of the term.

In military history, a lunette is a detached outwork with two faces and two flanks, built in front of a larger fortified position. It was used to strengthen defenses and to slow or expose an attack. The term also appears in a few specialized fields. In watchmaking, it can mean the bezel around a watch crystal, and in church use, it can mean the small holder that supports the Host in a monstrance.

So whether you meet it in an old text, on the front of a building, or in a book on fortifications, "lunette" is a word that keeps returning to the image of a small moon-shaped form.