objetn.
/ˈɒbʒeɪ/, U.S. /ˈɑbʒeɪ/ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > love > a lover > [noun] > object on which love is centred
flame1647
love1734
objet1847
love object1869
1847 W. M. Thackeray Vanity Fair (1848) xv. 132 Find out who is the objet, Briggs. I'll set him up in a shop.
1877 L. W. M. Lockhart Mine is Thine (1878) II. xviii. 33 He..protested,..against being ‘swindled’ into further association with the objet aimé for the present.
2. An object which is displayed or intended for display as an ornament. Usually in plural.Cf. objet d'art n., objet de luxe n., objet trouvé n., objet de vertu n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > work of art > [noun] > types of > objet d'art or curio
curiosity1645
virtu1746
article (also piece, bit, etc.) of virtu1755
object of art1830
objet d'art1840
chinoiserie1841
art object1848
curio1851
object of virtu1854
objet1857
objet de vertu1862
Japanesery1885
japonaiserie1896
Chinesery1907
1857 A. Mathews Tea-table Talk I. 98 Every part of it [sc. the house] abounded in pretty things—objets, as they are sometimes called, which her visitors were strictly forbidden to touch.
1925 W. Cather Professor's House i. xiii. 147 He began to walk softly about in his slippers, looking at nothing, but, as he talked, picking up objets here and there.
1973 Listener 6 Sept. 319/3 The sights and textures of bourgeois existence: the plush, the antimacassars, the objets in the home and in the shops.
1990 Homes & Gardens Oct. 118/1 A bedroom dressing table and mirror were de rigeur [sic] for displaying delicate objets.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1847