ci-devant
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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Etymology
Adjective
ci-devant (not comparable)
- Former, late.
- 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 262:
- Hastily Beatrice performed both her own and Emily's toilette; for what with fatigue and terror, her companion was almost powerless: still their celerity excited the praise of the ci-devant professor of the fine arts.
- 1846, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], Lucretia: Or The Children of Night. […], volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC:
- The ci-devant marquis was caught disguised in her apartment. She betrayed for him a good, easy friend of the people who had long loved her, and revenge is sweet.
- 1952, Isaac Asimov, Foundation and Empire (1974 Panther Books Ltd publication), part I: “The General”, chapter 1: ‘Search for Magicians’, page 10, ¶ 4
- The old patrician retreated noiselessly with a slow bow that was part of the ceremonious legacy left by a ci-devant aristocracy of the last century’s better days.
- 2006, Marsha Keith Schuchard, Why Mrs Blake Cried, Pimlico, published 2007, page 157:
- During art collecting tours in Italy, Townley worked with the eccentric scholar Baron d'Hancarville (ci-devant Pierre Françoise Hughes), a specialist in pornographic art […]
Anagrams
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Pronunciation
Adjective
Related terms
Descendants
- → English: ci-devant
Noun
ci-devant m or f by sense (plural ci-devant)
- (historical, French Revolution) former aristocrat
Further reading
- “ci-devant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
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