vignette

A vignette is a small illustration or design, especially one that appears on a book’s title page or between chapters.

This primary meaning of vignette has been extended in several ways, such as to refer to other small illustrations or images done in a similar style, or to brief scenes from literature or other works. Vignette can also be used as a verb, meaning to create such a thing or to do something in the style of a vignette.

Example: I love these old books that have lovely vignettes at the beginning of each chapter.

The first records of vignette in English come from around the mid-1700s. It is formed with the diminutive suffix -ette, which is commonly used in French loan words to indicate smaller versions of things, as in kitchenette and novelette. Vignette was borrowed into English directly from the French vignette, meaning “little vine,” a reference to early vignettes, which often depicted vines and trees in small sketches.

Such sketches often did not have defined borders, and the word vignette was extended to refer to any image, such as a drawing or photograph, that was gradually shaded at its edges so that it had no definite border. A common example is a portrait (painting or photo) that only shows a person’s head and shoulders. More generally, vignette can refer to any small sketch, picture, or view. The term also eventually came to refer to a brief, memorable scene in a fictional work such as a novel or a play—or, more recently, a movie. Some movies consist entirely of vignettes. One example is the 2018 movie The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, which features several short tales, each corresponding with a story from a book. Each scene in the movie is introduced by showing an illustrated vignette from the corresponding chapter in the book. (In the book, they’re called plates, which is a term for full-page illustrations.)

What are some other forms related to vignette?

• vignettes (plural)
• vignettist (noun)

What are some synonyms for vignette?

• sketch

What are some words that share a root or word element with vignette? 

• vignetter
• vigneron

What are some words that often get used in discussing vignette?

• illustration
• drawing
• scene
• aside
• shading
• border
• photo
• portrait

Vignette is used in a variety of ways, but most of them have to do with small illustrations or brief sketches, such as in books or movies.

The contents of that book are crazily compelling – even if, I suspect, the author Chas Sampson, didn’t base them on very strong folkloric/historic foundations… I’ve got a lovely 1931 1st Ed which has these lovely vignette illustrations at each chapter end. pic.twitter.com/veqKfCoNiI

— Edward Parnell (@edward_parnell) October 21, 2019

Parenting: A Vignette

11yr old: Did you tell mom happy birthday?

Me: He didn't

17yr old: Yes I did mom, when I climbed into your bed after I threw up in the middle of the night. Remember? I said "I'm gonna die on your birthday. Happy birthday."

— Ijeoma Oluo (@IjeomaOluo) December 30, 2018

I really enjoyed IT Chapter Two but it didn't feel like a movie as much as a series of disconnected vignettes which further reinforces my notion that it should've been a miniseries rather than two films.

— Doryen Edward Chin (they/them) (@HeyDoryen) September 16, 2019

Is vignette used properly in the following sentence?

I added a small vignette at the beginning of each chapter to show what each character looks like.