cynosure

From French cynosure (“Ursa Minor; Polaris”), from Latin Cynosūra (“Ursa Minor”), from Ancient Greek Κυνόσουρα (Kunósoura, “Ursa Minor”, literally “dog’s tail”), from κυνός (kunós, “dog's”) + οὐρά (ourá, “tail”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪnəzjʊə/, /-sjʊə/, /-ʃʊə/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsaɪnəʃʊɹ/, /ˈsɪn-/, /-ʃɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

cynosure (plural cynosures)

1. (usually capitalized) Ursa Minor or Polaris, the North Star, used as a guide by navigators.
2. (figuratively) That which serves to guide or direct; a guiding star.

   let faith be your cynosure to walk by

3. (figuratively) Something that is the center of attention; an object that serves as a focal point of attraction and admiration.
   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, “Astræa Redux”, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book II (The Paper Age):

     Meanwhile the fair young Queen, in her halls of state, walks like a goddess of Beauty, the cynosure of all eyes; as yet mingles not with affairs; heeds not the future; least of all, dreads it.

   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 306:

     With anglophobia driving out anglophilia, the king – as during the Seven Years War – came to represent the very cynosure of patriotic zeal.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:cynosure.

• cynosural

• Cynosure in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

• rounceys