grisette

Borrowed from French grisette, from gris (“grey”) +‎ -ette, named after the color of the fabric associated with low value or bad quality.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɡɹɪˈzɛt/
• Rhymes: -ɛt

grisette (plural grisettes)

1. A French girl or young married woman of the lower class; especially, a young working-class woman of perceived easy morals.
   • 1842, Edgar Allan Poe, ‘The Mystery of Marie Rogêt’:

     The anticipations of the shopkeeper were realized, and his rooms soon became notorious through the charms of the sprightly grisette.

   • 1983, Lawrence Durrell, Sebastian, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 1015:

     he enjoyed the immense luxury not only of lovemaking but also of sleeping and drowsing beside this gentle and composed and somewhat melancholy woman, who was not a fille de joie in the professional sense but more like a grisette.

• tergites