The article tells about what pince is when this device appeared and how it differs from ordinary glasses.
Ancient times
Life on Earth has existed for several billion years, during this time many biological species have changed on the planet, and if we consider even their most primitive ones, their structure, action and coherence seem incredible. Unfortunately, all living beings are far from ideal, and there is nothing to talk about man. And one of the defects that people acquire in the process of life (in rare cases, right after birth) is poor eyesight. There are many reasons why this happens. In our time, farsightedness, myopia, etc., have learned to treat, but this was not always the case, and for a long time such devices as pince-nez were used. So what is pince-nez? And how does it differ from glasses? We will talk about this in this article.
Definition
This word has French roots, and the device itself first begins to be found in culture (paintings, poems) from the middle of the 16th century. And it represents special glasses that do not have behind-the-ear arches, and they are attached to the nose by means of a spring clip. Now we know what pince-nez is.
But such glasses are not the first device that people used to correct vision. For example, in ancient Rome, many carried pieces of special glass with them, through which they looked at particularly small or distant objects. And by the way, Emperor Nero himself used a concave emerald when watching gladiatorial fights. Apparently, correcting thus myopia. So we sorted out the question of what is pince-nez. But consider the history of the appearance of this device in more detail, and also analyze the gender of the word.
History
As already mentioned, the lenses in the pince-nez were held on the bridge of the nose with a special clamp, which could be rigid and motionless or adjustable — it changed the distance between the lenses, the height of the location, etc. And of course, the clamp itself was made of some fairly soft material. However, it was still not possible to wear the product for a long and comfortable time.
However, in the middle of the XIX century, when new, more durable and lighter materials began to be used in the manufacture of pince-nez, this made it possible to wear them with great convenience. And this gave the spread of this device as an object of style and an optical accessory a new impetus.
In those days, pince-nez glasses were often made of materials such as horn, wood, rubber, celluloid, precious metals and more. Initially, the openings for the lenses themselves were round, but in the same XIX century. The oval pince-nez also came into fashion.
For ease of use and wear, a cord or chain was attached to some models. The latter, by the way, was usually attached to clothes, which avoided the loss of the device. And by the way, one often encounters the question of what kind of “pince-nez”. According to the dictionary, the word has a middle gender.
Recent story
By the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, pince-nez became firmly fashionable, and it found application in quite different sections of the population. And often it was used as a kind of accessory, even in those cases when a person had normal vision. Therefore, sometimes pince-nez with ordinary glasses appeared on sale, or they could be ordered specially.
Representatives of the Russian royal family also used pince-nez: in the photograph of the 1860s, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich was depicted, on the nose of which you can see this optical device.
It was distributed throughout the world, but especially in Europe, where it became an indispensable attribute of social life. Both men and women used it, but, of course, they produced special models for both of them that differ in appearance, the presence of some jewelry, etc. In addition to the device, which helped to see better, pince-nez was a kind of symbol of intelligence, education and culture. It was used by such politicians as Beria, Trotsky, Molotov and others.
Discontinuation
Fashion on a pension continued until the 50s of the XX century, but already during the Second World War, their popularity began to decline significantly. There are several reasons for this - new models of ordinary glasses (including sunglasses), and simply a change of fashion. So we sorted out why this accessory was used, the genus of the word "pince-nez" and its varieties.
Nowadays, pince-nez is practically not used, but still there are shocking lovers of antiquity who wear it. But now this is precisely the subject of style, because in terms of comfort the pince-nez is very much inferior to ordinary glasses with arches, and even less so to contact lenses. In addition, modern methods make it possible to correct hyperopia and myopia very simply and quickly, for example using laser vision correction.
So we sorted out the question of what pince-nez is, and found out the gender of the word. We hope you find this information useful.