LUNETTE (

See also:

• FRENCH
• FRENCH, DANIEL CHESTER (1850– )
• FRENCH, NICHOLAS (1604-1678)

French diminutive of lune,

See also:

• MOON (a common Teutonic word, cf. Ger. Mond, Du. maan, Dan. maane, &c., and cognate with such Indo-Germanic forms as Gr. µlip, Sans. ma's, Irish mi, &c.; Lat. uses luna, i.e. lucna, the shining one, lucere, to shine, for the moon, but preserves the word i
• MOON, SIR RICHARD, 1ST BARONET (1814-1899)

moon)  , a crescent-shaped, semi-circular object . The term is particularly applied in architecture to a circular opening at the intersection of vaulting by a smaller vault, as in a ceiling for the entrance of light or in the lower stories of towers for the passage of bells . It is also used of a panel space of semi-circular shape, filled by a fresco or other decorative treatment . In fortification a " lunette " was originally an earthwork of half-moon shape; later it became a redan with short flanks, in trace somewhat resembling a bastion standing by itself without curtains on either side . The gorge was generally open .