ancien régimen.adj.
/ˌɒ̃sɪã reɪˈʒiːm/, /ˌɒnsɪan reɪˈʒiːm/, U.S. /ˌɑnsiæn reɪˈʒim/, /ˌɑnsiæn rəˈʒim/, /ˌɑnsiɛn reɪˈʒim/, /ˌɑnsiɛn rəˈʒim/ A. n.
1. French History. The system of government in France before the revolution of 1789. Cf. ancient regime n. (a) at ancient adj. and n.1 Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > a or the system of government > specific regimes > [noun] > in France
reign of terror1784
ancient regime1792
ancien régime1794
terrorism1795
First Republic1800
White Terror1805
restoration1815
consulate1845
Red Terror1864
commune1871
marshalate1874
1792 W. Short Let. 18 Sept. in T. Jefferson Papers (1990) XXIV. 400 Those who have property, prefer the ancien regime to the present.
1794 G. Morris Let. 6 Mar. in J. Sparks Life (1832) II. ii. 411 If once that terror were, by superior force, to receive a counter direction, the Ancien Régime or any other Régime, would, I think, be submitted to without the slightest struggle.
1856 C. M. Yonge Daisy Chain ii. xviii. 539 An old French Marquis..a dear old man, quite of the ancien régime.
1930 Economist 2 Aug. 220/1 Charles X represented a Restoration of the Ancien Régime..which had ‘learnt nothing and forgotten nothing’ during a quarter of a century in the wilderness.
2002 R. Cohen By Sword i. iv. 95 The new revolutionaries believed that, having abolished the ancien régime, the duel, one of the privileges and abuses of the aristocracy, would go with it.
2. In extended use: any political or social system that has been displaced by another. Also: any old or outmoded system or way of doing things. Cf. ancient regime n. (b) at ancient adj. and n.1 Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > relative time > the past > oldness or ancientness > [noun] > old-fashionedness > outdated system
old order1533
ancient regime1792
1809 Eclectic Rev. Sept. 790 This is neither the ‘ancien regime’, nor the ‘new order of things’.
1825 U.S. Lit. Gaz. 15 Nov. 152 This book belongs, on the whole, to the ancien régime of novel-writing and cannot expect to be received with much favour by the present generation.
1874 Q. Rev. Jan. 80 There was an ancien regime of manners and ideas in the British Isles in those days, no less than in France.
1958 J. D. Pringle Austral. Accent v. 98 They [sc. descendants of upper-class English immigrants] form a rather sad minority, émigrés who have never left their country, lamenting an ancien régime which never quite existed.
2003 J. Golinski in R. Porter Cambr. Hist. Sci. IV. xvi. 378 Only then did the ancien régime of chemical practice begin to break down.
B. adj.
Of, relating to, or characteristic of the ancien régime; (in extended use) belonging to or characteristic of any displaced political or social system; outmoded, old-fashioned.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > a or the system of government > specific regimes > [adjective] > relating to specific regime in France
national1793
1826 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 19 710/2 Madame de Montorin..abstain[ed] from infusing into the mind of her daughter such decided monarchical prepossessions... However..she gladly listened to their ancien régime proposal of a future union between the young people.
1883 F. M. Crawford Dr. Claudius xiii. 226 Mr. Bellingham made a bow of the courtliest, most ancien-régime kind.
1930 N. Amer. Rev. Apr. 398/2 I even saw a short sleeved bathing suit and it looked very ancien régime.
1960 Brit. Jrnl. Sociol 11 321 The social pattern of Ancien Régime France.
2009 N.Y. Times 19 July (Late ed.) (Week in Review section) 10/2 Clueless ancien-régime conservatives were feebly clinging to their last levers of power, blissfully oblivious to the new America that was crashing down on their heads.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2022).
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n.adj.1792