manqué
/ˈmɒ̃keɪ
/adjective [postpositive]
Having failed to become what one might have been: he was a creature of suppressed passions, an artist manqué...
- Minnelli had his own professional Scotsman who, being something of an artist manqué, plied Minnelli with proposed rewrites of the script.
- They are not simply middle-class parents manqué; they have their own culture of child rearing.
- She is an American art critic manqué who travels Europe with her son in an eternally unfinished project to catalogue the best and most interesting Western masterpieces.
Origin
Late 18th century: French, past participle of manquer 'to lack'.