Marilyn Monroe

English

Marilyn Monroe in
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Etymology

After Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962), film star.

Noun

Marilyn Monroe (plural Marilyn Monroes)

1. A female representing an ideal type of physical beauty and glamour.
   • 1997 September 14, Cindy Pearlman, “Working mother; ; Basinger gives whole new meaning to ^babelicious^”, Chicago Sun-Times, page 3:

     With me they said,' Oh, she's got a little bit of that Marilyn Monroe quality.' I've learned when they attach' sex symbol' to your name, suddenly your credibility as an actress is in the toilet."

   • 2002 July, Benjamin Rosenbaum, “Droplet”, Fantasy & Science Fiction, volume 103, number 1, page 35: 

     Despite the cushiony-pink Marilyn Monroe skin, Shar is harder than I am. My heart races when I look at her, just as it did a hundred thousand years ago.

   • 2003 September, “Madonna now”, Bazaar, number 3502, page 303: 

     She introduced the world to the underground East Village punk style, took lingerie out of the bedroom and into the street, toyed with the Marilyn Monroe image of bombshell glamour

   • 2008 April 5, Davide Castelvecchi, “QUANTUM COCOON”, Science News, volume 173, page 216: 

     There's no such thing as a 100 percent-pure crystal, though, and diamond's impurities are in fact Marilyn Monroe beauty marks that make it attractive for physics.

Usage notes

• Also frequently used to refer to the literal person Marilyn Monroe
  • 1992 June 12, “Ignored to Death; Please Stop the Noise; The End of a Fairy Tale?”, ABC_2020:

    The truth is that she is from a very emotionally disturbed background. She herself is a seriously emotionally disturbed person and has always been. / I think she's a sort of Marilyn Monroe creature, rather sad in some ways.

  • 1992 April, “Abbey Lincoln: Unrehearsed”, Essence, volume 22, number 12, page 72: 

    for an instant she is Artemis the huntress, stalking her man. " But you really can't have paradise on top of someone else's misery. If we had lived in another society, an African society, where there is such a thing as polygamy, where a man takes a second and third wife, it wouldn't have been a problem. But in this world, it's either-or. It was the shadow over the marriage. " But that's now. Back then she was still the girl in the Marilyn Monroe dress.

  • 2009‎ August 12, Randy Cordova, “Another round of 'Mad Men' about to kick off”, Arizona Republic:

    She also has something of a Marilyn Monroe fixation, perhaps not surprising considering her va-va-voom figure.

Translations

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 玛丽莲·梦露 (cmn) (Mǎlìlián Mènglòu (瑪麗蓮·夢露))

• Greek: Μέριλιν Μονρόε (el) (Mérilin Monróe)

• Japanese: マリリン・モンロー (ja) (Maririn Monrō)
• Korean: 메릴린 먼로 (ko) (Meririn Meonro)
• Russian: Мэрилин Монро (ru) (Mèrilin Monro)