bezel

From old French dialect biseau (“sloping edge”), variation on bijou (“jewel”), itself probably from Breton bisou, bizou (“ring worn on the finger”), from biz (“finger”).

Unrelated to similar bevel, which is of distinct French origin.

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈbɛz.əl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: bezzle

bezel (plural bezels)

1. The sloping edge or face on a cutting tool.
2. The oblique side or face of a cut gem; especially the upper faceted portion of a brilliant (diamond), which projects from its setting.
3. The rim and flange which encompasses and fastens a jewel or other object, such as the crystal of a watch, in the cavity in which it is set.

   Synonym: collet

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, OCLC 1167497017:

     “There,” she went on, “it must be one like to it, and yet never did I see one like to it, for thereto hung a history, and he who wore it prized it much. But the scarab that I knew was not set thus in the bezel of a ring.

4. (computing) The panel that covers the front of a computer case, or the panel covering each drive bay that can be removed to install a removable drive that requires external access, such as a CD/DVD-ROM drive, which usually has its own preinstalled bezel.
5. (computing) The area on the front of a computing device surrounding the display.

   Modern smartphones have very thin bezels.

• beazle
• bevel
• collet

• bezel in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• Nouveau Petit Larousse illustré. Dictionnaire encyclopédique. Paris, Librairie Larousse, 1952, 146th edition