Catherinette

English

Etymology

From the French.

Noun

Catherinette (plural Catherinettes)

1. An unmarried woman over the age of 25 who lives in a country that celebrates the festival of Saint Catherine's Day for such women.
   • 1923, The Living Age - Volume 316, page 116:

     Every Catherinette has received, by the first post, a Valentine card, with midget mob-cap and the pretty, doleful ribbons stuck on.

   • 1929, Collier's - Volume 84, page lxiv:

     Each shop elects a Catherinette, a model or designer or simple seamstress, unmarried and twenty-five years of age. I was the Catherinette of a shop where I worked.

   • 1948, Joseph Wechsberg, Sweet and Sour, page 97:

     The queens of the day are the Catherinettes, the unmarried girls who will celebrate their twenty-fifth birthday within the next twelve months.

   • 1964, Réalités - Issues 158-169, page 10:

     Today Catherinettes still deck the statue of their patron saint in the church of Notre-Dame de Bonne-Nouvelle in Paris, where a special Mass for Catherinettes has been said since November 25, 1925.

   • 2004, New Statesman - Volume 133, Issues 4708-4718, page 76:

     For these pitiable spinsters, a Catherinette is arranged; this is a relic, I think, of the old hiring and marriage fairs of the 19th century.

   • 2016, Victoria Williams, Celebrating Life Customs around the World, →ISBN:

     In addition Catherinettes send each other postcards. The hats worn by the Catherinettes are made by their friends and are traditionally colored either yellow, denoting faith, or green, representing wisdom, and are supposed to be worn all day long in the manner of a crown. In the evening of St. Catherine's Day Catherinettes are treated to a meal, ball, or party by their friends.