English

Alternative forms

• etui

Noun

étui ‎(plural étuis)

1. A small, ornamental bag or rigid container used for holding articles such as needles.
   • 1855, Sir Richard Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah, Dover 1964, p. 26 n.:

     Secondly, glass bottles are useless: the drugs should be stowed away in tin or wooden boxes, such as the natives of the country use, and when a phial is required, it must be fitted into an étui of some kind.

   • 1972, Vladimir Nabokov, Transparent Things, McGraw-Hill 1972, p. 13:

     And what about that comb in a real-leather etui, what about, what about it – oh, it would get fouled up in no time and it would take an hour of work to remove the grime from between its tight teeth [...].

   • 1995, Thomas Mann, translated from the 1925 German by John E. Woods, "The Magic Mountain", Alfred A. Knopf, 1995, p. 46:

     And from a buff leather etui monogrammed in silver, he extracted one of his Maria Mancinis-- a lovely specimen from the top of the box, flattened on just one side the way he especially liked it [...].

French

Etymology

From Old French estui, from estuier ‎(“keep, hold”), itself possibly from Vulgar Latin *studiāre, from Latin studium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /etɥi/
• Homophone: étuis

Noun

étui m ‎(plural étuis)

1. case (for glasses, cigars, a viola)
2. holster (for a gun)
3. cover (for an umbrella)
4. cartridge (of a bullet)

Descendants

• Dutch: etui (borrowed)
• English: étui (borrowed)
• German: Etui (borrowed)
• Ido: etuyo (borrowed)