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Sedan - 7 dictionary results

se⋅dan

[si-dan]
–noun
1. an enclosed automobile body having two or four doors and seating four or more persons on two full-width seats.
2. sedan chair.

Origin:
1625–35; of obscure orig.

Se⋅dan

[si-dan; Fr. suh-dahn]
–noun
a city in NE France, on the Meuse River: defeat and capture of Napoleon III 1870. 25,430.
se·dan   (sĭ-dān')   
n.  
  1. A closed automobile having two or four doors and a front and rear seat.
  2. A portable enclosed chair for one person, having poles in the front and rear and carried by two other people. Also called sedan chair.

[Origin unknown.]
Se·dan   (sĭ-dān', sə-däɴ')   
A town of northeast France on the Meuse River near the Belgian border. It was the site of the decisive defeat and surrender of Napoleon III (September 2, 1870) in the Franco-Prussian War. Population: 20,300.

Sedan

Se*dan"\, n. [Said to be named from Sedan, in France, where it was first made, and whence it was introduced into England in the time of King Charles I.] A portable chair or covered vehicle for carrying a single person, -- usually borne on poles by two men. Called also sedan chair.
Language Translation for : Sedan
Spanish: sedán,
German: die Limousine,
Japanese: 乗用車

sedan 
1635, "covered chair on poles," possibly from a southern Italian dialect derivative of It. sede "chair" (cf. It. seggietta, 1598; the thing itself was said to have been introduced from Naples), from L. sedes, related to sedere "sit" (see sedentary). Since Johnson's conjecture, often derived from the town of Sedan in France, where it was said to have been made or first used, but historical evidence for this is lacking. Introduced in England by Sir Sanders Duncombe in 1634 and firs called a covered chair. "In Paris the sedan-chair man was usually an Auvergnat, in London an Irishman" ["Encyclopedia Britannica," 1929]. Meaning "closed automobile seating four or more" first recorded 1912, Amer.Eng.

Sedan

town, Ardennes departement, Champagne-Ardenne region, northeastern France. Sedan is situated 9 miles (14 km) southwest of the Belgian frontier. It lies on the right bank of the Meuse River along a loop in the river in a depression between two ridges. Most of the 17th- and 18th-century houses in the centre of the town were destroyed during the German invasion of France in 1940 during World War II. The 15th-century castle is locally claimed to be the largest in Europe. A statue has been erected in the centre of the town to Marshal Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, vicomte de Turenne, the famous 17th-century French soldier, who was born in the chateau of the stronghold.

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