merveilleux

See also: Merveilleux

English

Thérésa Tallien, a renowned merveilleuse

Alternative forms

Etymology

From the French merveilleux.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [mɛʁvɛjø]

Noun

merveilleux (plural merveilleux, feminine merveilleuse)

  1. (historical) Contemporary names for an extravagantly dressed French fop or ‘fine lady’ of the period of the Directory, who affected a revival of the classical costume of ancient Greece.
    • 1819, The Metropolis: A Novel (second edition), volume II, page 57:
      I did not stay very late at the party; and our marvellous promised to give us a list of the company..the ensuing day. [Cf. p. 59 Our military Exquisite.]
    • 1892 October 19th, The Daily News, page 5/1:
      The ‘merveilleuse’ of the Directory in France. The ‘merveilleuse’, or ‘ultra-fashionable’, as the writer..rather inadequately translates her title, ‘walked..half naked in the Champs Elysees’.
    • 1898, Mary Loyd (translator), Octave Uzanne (author), Fashion in Paris: The Various Phases of Feminine Taste and Æsthetics from 1797 to 1897, chapter i, page 8:
      The Ecrouelleux, the Inconcevables, the Merveilleux, with their chins sunk in their huge cravats.
    • ibidem, page 19:
      The Merveilleuses survived the Incroyables by a couple of years.

Translations

References

Further reading


French

Etymology

merveille + -eux

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /mɛʁ.vɛ.jø/
  • (file)

Adjective

merveilleux (feminine singular merveilleuse, masculine plural merveilleux, feminine plural merveilleuses)

  1. marvelous, brilliant

Descendants

Further reading


Middle French

Etymology

Old French merveillos, etc.

Noun

merveilleux m (feminine singular merveilleuse, masculine plural merveilleux, feminine plural merveilleuses)

  1. marvelous; brilliant, etc.

Descendants

References

  • merveilleux on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330-1500) (in French)
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