Dundreary

English

Edward Sothern as Lord Dundreary, sporting dundrearies

Alternative forms

• dundreary

Etymology

From the name of Lord Dundreary, a character in Tom Taylor's play Our American Cousin (1858).

Noun

Dundreary (plural Dundrearys or Dundrearies)

1. (attributive) Describing types of fashion, hairstyles etc. associated with the foppish Lord Dundreary in Taylor's Our American Cousin. [from 19th c.]
   • 1917, George Robert Sims, My Life:

     The shop windows were filled with Dundreary scarves, and Brother Sam scarves, and there were Dundreary collars and Dundreary shirts, and Dundrearyisms were on every lip.

   • 1986, Sheelagh Kelly, For My Brother's Sins:

     ‘I shall, if I may claim the second dance,’ spoke up a young man with Dundreary whiskers.

2. (obsolete) A person reminiscent of Lord Dundreary; a fop, a dandy. [19th–20th c.]
3. (in the plural) Long, bushy sideburns. [from 19th c.]

   Synonym: Piccadilly weepers

   • 2002, Josepth Roth, translated by Michael Hofmann, The Radetsky March, Folio Society, published 2015, page 221:

     All at once, the Emperor began to whistle. He really did purse his lips, the wings of his dundrearies moved a little closer together, and the Emperor whistled a tune, a familiar, if somewhat distorted tune.

Derived terms

• Dundrearyism

Further reading

• Lord Dundreary on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Our American Cousin on Wikipedia.Wikipedia