cameo
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: caméo
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian cammeo, from Medieval Latin camaeus, of unknown origin. The movie sense is short for “cameo role” referring to a famous person who was playing no character, but him or herself. Like a cameo brooch — a low-relief carving of a person’s head or bust — the actor or celebrity is instantly recognizable. More recently, it has come to refer to any short appearances, whether as a character or as oneself. Doublet of camaieu.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkæm.iː.əʊ/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ˈkæm.i.oʊ/
Audio (US): (file)
Noun
cameo (plural cameos or cameoes)
- A piece of jewelry, etc., carved in relief.
- 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Eternal City”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 433:
- Aarfy's buxom trollop had vanished with her smutty cameo ring, and Nurse Duckett was ashamed of him because he had refused to fly more combat missions and would cause a scandal.
- A single very brief appearance, especially by a prominent celebrity in a movie or song.
- Famous comic book writer Stan Lee had a cameo in the Spider-Man movie. He was on screen for perhaps ten seconds, but aficionados distinctly remember him.
- 1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./4/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
- As they turned into Hertford Street they startled a robin from the poet's head on a barren fountain, and he fled away with a cameo note.
- 2022 October 17, Rachel E. Gross, “Half the World Has a Clitoris. Why Don’t Doctors Study It?”, in The New York Times:
- Dr. Helen O’Connell, Australia’s first female urologist, recalled that in her own medical training, the clitoris barely made a cameo.
Derived terms
Translations
relief work
|
brief appearance
|
Verb
cameo (third-person singular simple present cameos, present participle cameoing, simple past and past participle cameoed)
- To appear in a cameo role.
Anagrams
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
cameo m (plural camei)
- cameo (short appearance)
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
cameo m (plural cameos)
- cameo (short appearance)
Further reading
- “cameo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
