chironomy

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The art of using effective hand gestures, especially (historical) in Greco-Roman contexts.
  2. The skill of conducting music with hand gestures.

Pronunciation

/kaɪˈɹɒnəmi/

Word forms

chironomy chironomies cheironomy cheironomia

Etymology

From French chironomie and directly from Latin chīronomia, from Ancient Greek χειρονομία (kheironomía, “gesturing, gesticulation”), from χειρονόμος (kheironómos, “mime, skilled gesturer”), from χειρο- (kheiro-, “hand-”) + νόμος (nómos, “controller, manager”), from νέμω (némō, “to control, to manage”).

Derived words

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.