coquetry

English edit

WOTD – 12 April 2007

coquetry (countable and uncountable, plural coquetries)

Coquettish behaviour; actions designed to excite erotic attention, without intending to reciprocate such feelings (chiefly of women towards men); flirtatious teasing.
- 1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, 1st American edition, Boston, Mass.: […] Peter Edes for Thomas and Andrews, […], published 1792, →OCLC:
  With a lover […] her sensibility will naturally lead her to endeavour to excite emotion, not to gratify her vanity, but her heart. This I do not allow to be coquetry, it is the artless impulse of nature […]
(countable) An act constituting such behaviour; an affectation of amorous interest or enticement, especially of a woman directed towards a man.
- 1882, Louisa M. Alcott, Kitty's Class Day And Other Stories‎^[1]:
  The little coquetries, which are as natural to a gay young girl as her laughter, were all in full play, and had she gone no further no harm would have been done.
- 1910, Geraldine Bonner, The Emigrant Trail‎^[2]:
  The mischievous pleasure of her coquetries was forgotten, and in a rush of glad confidence she felt a woman's pride in him.
- 1913, Carolyn Wells, Patty's Social Season‎^[3]:
  "Her pretty little coquetries are like the gambols of a kitten.

affectation of amorous tenderness

Arabic: دَلَال m (dalāl)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 風騷／风骚 (zh) (fēngsāo), 媚態／媚态 (zh) (mèitài), 嬌態／娇态 (zh) (jiāotài)
Finnish: keimailu (fi), flirttailu (fi)
French: coquetterie (fr) f, coquetisme m
Galician: coquetería f
German: Koketterie (de) f
Greek: ακκισμός (el) m (akkismós), νάζι (el) n (názi)
Hebrew: התיפות (hityafot)
Hindi: अदा (hi) (adā), इश्वा (iśvā), ग़म्ज़ा (ġamzā)
Japanese: 媚態 (びたい, bitai), 嬌態 (ja) (きょうたい, kyōtai)
Persian: ادا (fa) (adâ), عشوه (fa) ('ešve), کرشمه (fa) (kerešme)
Russian: коке́тство (ru) n (kokétstvo)
Spanish: coquetería (es) f
Turkish: naz (tr), cilve (tr), işve (tr), eda (tr)
Urdu: ادا (adā)