cicisbea
English edit
Etymology edit
Noun edit
cicisbea (plural cicisbeas or cicisbee)
- (now chiefly historical) The female companion or lover of a (chiefly married) man, especially in eighteenth-century Italy.
- 1876, Dr Doran, ‘Mann’ and Manners at the Court of Florence, 1740–1786, page 143:
- The instant he was taken ill, he was persuaded he should dye, and refused to see anybody; even my neighbour, Anna Frescobaldi, his Cicisbea of 30 years standing was forbid.
- 2009, Paula Findlen, “Anatomy of a Lesbian”, in Findlen, Roworth & Sama, editor, Italy's Eighteenth Century, Stanford University Press, page 242:
- Bonducci […] had been actively courting Walpole with such projects as his Italian translation of Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock, which he dedicated to Horace Walpole's cicisbea Elisabetta Capponi.
Related terms edit
Italian edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
Akin to cicisbeo.
Noun edit
cicisbea f (plural cicisbee)
Further reading edit
- cicisbea in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
Etymology 2 edit
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Verb edit
cicisbea
- inflection of cicisbeare:
Categories:
- English terms derived from Italian
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English nouns with irregular plurals
- English terms with historical senses
- English terms with quotations
- Italian 4-syllable words
- Italian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Italian/ɛa
- Rhymes:Italian/ɛa/4 syllables
- Italian lemmas
- Italian nouns
- Italian countable nouns
- Italian feminine nouns
- Italian archaic terms
- Italian non-lemma forms
- Italian verb forms