fron·tis·piece

[fruhn-tis-pees, fron-]
noun
1.
an illustrated leaf preceding the title page of a book.
2.
Architecture. a façade, or a part or feature of a façade, often highlighted by ornamentation.

Origin:
1590–1600; alteration (conformed to piece) of earlier frontispice < French < Medieval Latin frontispicium, equivalent to Latin fronti- front + -spicium (combining form representing specere to look at)

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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World English Dictionary
frontispiece (ˈfrʌntɪsˌpiːs) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
n
1.  an illustration facing the title page of a book
2.  the principal façade of a building; front
3.  a pediment, esp an ornamented one, over a door, window, etc
 
[C16 frontispice, from French, from Late Latin frontispicium façade, inspection of the forehead, from Latin frōns forehead + specere to look at; influenced by piece]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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00:10
Frontispiece is always a great word to know.
So is balustrade. Does it mean:
a slablike member beneath the base of a column or pier or a square base of a pedestal
a railing with supporting balusters or posts
Etymonline
Word Origin & History

frontispiece
1597, "decorated entrance of a building," from M.Fr. frontispice, probably from It. frontespizio and L.L. frontispicium "facade," originally "a view of the forehead, judgment of character through facial features," from L. frons (gen. frontis) "forehead" + specere "to look at" (see
scope (1)). Sense of "illustration facing a book's title page" first recorded 1682.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Example sentences
He used an engraving of himself in laborer's clothes as the frontispiece.
Several seventeenth-century editions of her works used engravings based on this painting as a frontispiece.
They are of wood, but the remainder of the niche and frontispiece are of plaster.
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