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Glite Dictionary
da Vinci

da Vinci

68 4.2
An Italian artist, scientist, and inventor from the Renaissance
  • proper noun
  • /də ˈvɪn.tʃi/
: da Vinci
  • It's one of da Vinci's most famous sketches.
  • Leonardo da Vinci

And I said, well, that's why it's the Da Vinci Code and not the Da Vinci world.

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Examples

  • You've found Leonardo da Vinci's secret vault, secured by a series of combination locks.

  • During the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci sketched an anti-friction bearing, but its intended use is unknown.

    Academic text (2003)

  • The name of the mission is the Leonardo da Vinci mission to the planet of love.

  • I created a series of swings which were based on Leonardo da Vinci's flying machines.

  • And as Leonardo da Vinci said, I have been impressed with the urgency of doing.

  • Famous scientists and inventors, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and Hiram Maxim, had taken an interest in flight, with limited success.

    Academic text (2003)

  • Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci led the way, signaling a shift in power in which the individual artist signed his work with his own name rather than with the name of the school for which he painted or left it unsigned as an act of submersion in the tribal talent pool.

    Academic text (2003)

  • The painting by da Vinci known as the Mona Lisa hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

  • I trust you recognize The Last Supper, the great fresco by da Vinci.

Synonyms

Leonardo
vsda Vinci
49 5.3

An Italian artist and inventor from the Renaissance who painted the Mona Lisa

is more neutral, listing roles and leading status instead of calling them genius
Leonardo da Vinci
vsda Vinci
18 4.8

An Italian artist and inventor from the Renaissance famous for the Mona Lisa

covers a wider range of creative and technical professions including sculpting and architecture

Surface Forms

da Vinci main

Morphology

da + Vinci

This is a proper name referring to a specific historical person; the referential identity (Leonardo, Renaissance painter/scientist) cannot be derived from the literal constituents. The parts 'da' and 'Vinci' are not English lexical items (ʻdaʼ is an Italian preposition meaning ‘from’ and ʻVinciʼ a place name), so even a learner who knew those meanings would not infer the biographical information—making the expression non-compositional for a B1 learner.

Etymology

Da Vinci literally means da 'from' Vinci, the small town where Leonardo was born. That's why when people say da Vinci today they mean Leonardo, the famous artist and inventor.