petit maîtren.adj.

Brit.

/ˌpɛtɪ ˈmeɪtrə/, U.S.

/ˌpɛdi ˈmeɪtrə/

Inflections: Plural petits maîtres, petit maîtres.

Forms: 1700s– petit maitre, 1700s– petit maître, 1800s– petite-maître (irregular).

Origin: A borrowing from French. Etymon: French petit maître.

Etymology: < French petit maître dandy (1686 in this sense; earlier in sense ‘devil, demon’ (1605) and with reference to the king of France (1614 as †petit maistre ); perhaps originally after use of mon petit maître ‘my little master’ as an ironic form of address: see Trésor de la langue française at petit-maître) < French petit (see petit adj.) + maître (see master n.¹). Sense A. 2 is apparently not attested in French. Compare slightly earlier petty master n. at petty adj. and n. Compounds 1a.

A. n.

1. derogatory. An effeminate man; a dandy, a fop. Also figurative. Now chiefly archaic.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > attention and judgement > fashionableness > [noun] > dandy

popa1500

miniona1513

prick-me-daintya1529

puppy?1544

velvet-coat1549

skipjack1554

coxcomb1567

musk cat?1567

physbuttocke1570

Adonis?1571

Adon1590

foretop1597

musk-cod1600

pretty fellow1600

sparkc1600

spangle-baby1602

flash1605

barber-monger1608

cocoloch1610

dapperling1611

fantastica1613

feather-cock1612

trig1612

jack-a-dandy?1617

gimcrack1623

satinist1639

powder puffa1653

fop1676

prig1676

foplinga1681

cockcomb1684

beau garçona1687

shape1688

duke1699

nab1699

smirk1699

beau1700

petty master1706

moppet1707

Tom Astoner1707

dapper1709

petit maître1711

buck1725

toupee1727

toupet1728

toupet-man1748

jemmy1753

jessamy1753

macaroni1764

majoc1770

monkeyrony1773

dandyc1780

elegant1780

muscadin1794

incroyable1797

beauty man1800

bang-up1811

natty1818

ruffian1818

exquisite1819

heavy swell1819

marvellous1819

bit of stuff1828

merveilleux1830

fat1832

squirt1844

dandyling1846

ineffable1859

guinea pig1860

Dundreary swell1862

masher1872

dude1877

mash1879

dudette1883

dand1886

heavy gunner1890

posh1890

nut1904

smoothie1929

fancy-pants1930

saga boy1941

fancy Dan1943

the world > people > person > man > [noun] > effeminate man

badlingeOE

milksopc1390

cockneyc1405

malkina1425

molla1425

weakling1526

tenderling1541

softling1543

niceling1549

woman-man1567

cocknel1570

effeminate1583

androgyne1587

meacock1590

mammaday1593

hermaphrodite1594

midwife1596

nimfadoro1600

night-sneaker1611

mock-mana1625

nan1670

she-man1675

petit maître1711

old woman1717

master-miss1754

Miss Molly1754

molly1785

squaw1805

mollycoddle1823

Miss Nancy1824

mollycot1826

molly mop1829

poof1833

Margery?c1855

ladyboy1857

girl1862

Mary Ann1868

sissy1879

milk1881

pretty-boy1881

nancy1888

poofter1889

Nancy Dawson1890

softie1895

puff1902

pussy1904

Lizzie1905

nance1910

quean1910

maricon1921

pie-face1922

bitch1923

Jessie1923

lily1923

tapette1923

pansy1926

nancy boy1927

nelly1931

femme1932

ponce1932

queerie1933

palone1934

queenie1935

girlie-man1940

swish1941

puss1942

wonk1945

mother1947

candy-ass1953

twink1953

cream puff1958

pronk1959

swishy1959

limp wrist1960

pansy-ass1963

weeny1963

poofteroo1966

mo1968

shim1973

twinkie1977

woofter1977

cake boy1992

hermaphrodite-

1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 83. ¶5 All his Men were Petits Maitres, and all his Women Coquets.

1753 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison II. v. 86 Do you pretend, in such an age of petit-maitres, to live single?

1843 G. P. R. James Forest Days I. v. 85 The long and hanging sleeves of the loose coat he wore were..one of the distinguishing marks of a petit maître of that day.

1883 C. M. Yonge Stray Pearls I. x. 115 He would be ashamed to count kindred with that effeminate petite maître!

1948 D. Cecil Two Quiet Lives 88 At moments..one is tempted to dismiss him [sc. Horace Walpole] as an affected petit-maître who happened to be gifted with a talent for letter writing.

1999 Slavic Rev. 58 404 These letters present us with a classic example of a young petit-maître collaborating with an old roué as portrayed by French literature of the eighteenth century.

2. A minor master, esp. in the fine arts. Frequently derogatory.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > the arts > artist > [noun] > minor master

petit maître1816

1816 Ld. Byron Let. 5 Jan. (1976) V. 14 His compatriot is more of the petit-maître,..but I should think not at all of the same intellectual calibre.

1856 J. B. Waring in O. Jones Gram. Ornament (1865) xviii. 132 As regards another main feature in Elizabethan ornament, viz. the complicated and fanciful interlaced bands, we must seek its origin in the..designs of the class of engravers known as the ‘petits maîtres’ of Germany and the Netherlands.

1870 Nature 6 Jan. 259/1 It is just such a work as might be expected from a nimble-witted gyrating Gaul, a sort of petit maitre of omniscience.

1934 C. Lambert Music Ho! iii. 168 Liadoff, a real petit-maître, produced at rare intervals a few miniatures of extraordinary felicity.

1975 Daily Tel. 10 June 11/4 Pierre Prins is one of those French petits maitres whom, if we only saw their best work, we would rate rightly.

2001 Daily Tel. 3 Oct. 24/1 The range of his art is so limited that he has to be enjoyed as a petit maître, or not at all.

B. adj.

Of or relating to a petit maître.

ΘΚΠ

the world > people > person > man > [adjective] > effeminate man

womanisha1393

womanlike1440

feminatea1533

effeminate1549

womanlike1565

cockney1573

feminine1614

androgynous1628

muliebrious1652

petit maître1729

Miss Nancyish1855

gynaecomorphous1865

gynandrous1878

girly-girly1882

nancified1901

wimbly-wambly1929

tapette1930

queeny1936

female1940

poofed-up1964

pansy-ass1976

wussy1977

effete1981

1729 J. Gay Poems Several Occasions 193 But here my verse is to one race confin'd, All Frenchmen are of Petit-maitre kind.

1744 H. Walpole Lett. to H. Mann 22 July A little, pert petit-maître figure.

1880 J. H. Shorthouse John Inglesant xxxviii. 537 He had..the look of a petit maître, and even, what is more contemptible still, of a petit-maître priest.

1939 ‘A. Bridge’ Four-part Setting vi. 63 His manners were slightly petit-maître.

1999 S. Rushdie Ground beneath her Feet (2000) xi. 342 His paintings are truly dreadful, the worst type of petit-maître banality.

Derivatives

† petit maitreism n. derogatory Obsolete rare the state of being a petit-maître.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > attention and judgement > fashionableness > [noun] > dandy > style or condition of

wantonnessc1405

beauship1696

foppery1697

beauetry1702

foppishness1741

buckism1753

macaronism1775

buckishness1803

dandiness1819

dandyism1819

petit maitreship1822

dandyhood1823

petit maitreism1824

dandification1827

exquisitism1833

beauism1844

dandydomc1850

tigerishness1869

dudedom1883

dudeism1883

dudery1883

dudeness1884

1824 New Monthly Mag. 10 518 We..begin to give up our old ideas of their coxcombry, gaiety, and petit-maitreism.

1839 Southern Literary Messenger Apr. 255/2 The ‘Editor's Table,’ (bating the vein of petit maitre-ism, which ran through its pages somewhat too prominently,) was always full of interest.

† petit maitreship n. derogatory Obsolete rare the condition of being a petit-maître, or of being associated with petit-maîtres.

ΘΚΠ