Mona Lisan

English

Etymology

From Mona Lisa +‎ -n.

Adjective

Mona Lisan (comparative more Mona Lisan, superlative most Mona Lisan)

1. Resembling or characteristic of the Mona Lisa.
   • 1912 October 12, “A Cruel Prima Donna War Averted; Hostilities Aroused in Several Quarters by Berlin Story of Frieda Hempel as Metropolitan’s “Highest-Salaried” Woman Artist, but No Casualties Are Reported—Berlin Concert Season Opens with Dedication of Philharmonie Organ”, in Musical America, volume XVI, number 23, New York, N.Y., page 123:

     On such occasions Tina Lerner’s smile is inscrutable—thoroughly Mona Lisan.

   • 1914 March 20, Frederic J. Haskin, “The Restored Mona Lisa”, in The Evening Star, number 19,532, Washington, D.C., page 10:

     Many explanatory pages have been written on the meaning of this famous painting, and, provoked by its indefinable charm, its elusive suggestion, many an art student has brought the full power of his critical acumen to the task of finding suitable words for the description of the picture’s strange appeal. Each attempt has failed and each writer has dwelt with peculiar emphasis upon the qualities of the Mona Lisan smile.

   • 1914 March 26, “Archibald S. White Passes Birthday Here; Telegrams Made Known the Fact, but Discreet Silence Maintained by the Financier”, in Woodland Daily Democrat‎^[1], Woodland, Calif.:

     Of course the New York man would not say just what anniversary of his birthday he was celebrating. Some long range guesses were ventured by Mr. White’s party, but each guess was met with that Mona Lisan smile that Everyman takes on when he does not care to explain.

   • 1919 February 26, Baxter Daily Citizen‎^[2], volume II, number 65, Baxter Springs, Kan.:

     They greet the boys every morning, smiling with Mona Lisan smiles.

   • 1921, Adele S[teiner] Burleson, Every Politician and His Wife, Philadelphia, Pa.: Dorrance and Company, Inc., page 167:

     But always, at the end of their discussions, his wife’s Mona Lisan smile seemed like a red-hot iron ever hovering to brand him with the scarlet letter of opportunism.

   • 1921 January 26, Elmo P. Abbiati, “To a Simple Love”, in New York Tribune, volume LXXX, number 27,100, page 8:

     My dear, if I should say your eyes / Are bright as Rigel in the skies; / If I should say your lustrous hair / Is glorious more than high Altair / And that your simple, happy smile / Is of the Mona Lisan style; / Or that your graceful ruby lips / E’en Trojan Helen’s do eclipse; / And tell you, too—not just to please— / You’re fairer than the Naiades; / Said I such things, by ardor fanned, / I do not think you’d understand.

   • 1925, Rachel Swete Macnamara, Marsh Lights, Boston, Mass.: Small, Maynard & Company, page 74:

     “Do swear if you like, my dear man,” she said with that faint elusive smile so characteristic of her, which those who admired her called Mona Lisan and those who did not, sly.

   • 1936 February 22, Rupert Hughes, “Section 213”, in The Commercial Appeal, volume CXXXII, number 53, Memphis, Tenn., page 13:

     She sat with a Mona Lisan smile, purring inaudibly and savoring the spicy future that had opened for them.

   • 1949, Mari Tomasi, Like Lesser Gods, Milwaukee, Wis.: The Bruce Publishing Company, page 13:

     She was silently forming thoughts behind that Mona Lisan mask, and now she put them into speech.

   • 1950, The Prairie Schooner‎^[3], volume XXIV, page 168:

     You would never think, till you looked back, we had travelled thirteen terrible miles up a narrow, gravelly, tortuous track, while the world fell away in sheeted green and hills became Mona Lisan smiles of multiple, fantastic mien;

   • 1962, Clive Sansom, Dorset Village‎^[4], London: Methuen & Co., page 72:

     Their smile is human, and for some queer reason / It is at once High Church and Mona Lisan.

   • 1962 September 15, Betty Billipp, “Quips and Quotes”, in The Daily Sentinel‎^[5], volume LXVII, Grand Junction, Colo.:

     Historians may seek the reason / For that smile called Mona Lisan, / But I should think that any fool / Could guess: her kids went back to school!

   • 1969 January 5, Hunton Downs, “Where Are the Girls of Yesteryear? What Sarong With the New Asia”, in The Sunday Star-Bulletin & Advertiser, Honolulu, Haw., page A-14:

     What matter if their eyes were mischievous, moronic or Mona Lisan.

   • 1969 December 6, S. E. B., “Editor’s Journal”, in The Times-Argus, volume 73, number 224, page four:

     Grieving this day at the death of a gentle and charming lady, talented, thoughtful, kind, public-minded, possessing a Mona-Lisan smile, in the prime of her life, leaving a fine and wholesome family desolate.

   • 1970, Frank O’Rourke, The Abduction of Virginia Lee, Philadelphia, Pa., New York, N.Y.: J. B. Lippincott Company, →LCCN, page 71:

     Horatio’s smile, for one moment, was Mona Lisan.

   • 1970 January 4, Dayton Daily News, volume 93, number 118, Dayton, Ohio, page 10-D:

     Did I detect a Mona Lisan smile?

   • 1973, Industrial Vista‎^[6], page 36:

     “No kidding, swear. He also said that you have a Mona Lison^[sic] smile.” “Mona Lisan? Oh! I just don’t know how people get all these things into their heads.”

   • 1980, Robert Katz, Days of Wrath; The Ordeal of Aldo Moro: The Kidnapping, The Execution, The Aftermath, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., →ISBN, →LCCN, page 41:

     Nature and circumstance had long ago pressed a Mona Lisan mystery on his face.

   • 1981 May 10, Jim Sanderson, “Bedded Bliss, King-Size and Otherwise”, in Los Angeles Times, part VII, page 19:

     Her smile was Mona Lisan.

   • 1997, Assemblage‎^[7], The MIT Press, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 13:

     The monochromatic dark suit, the conservative tie, the silk handkerchief in the vest pocket, the Mona Lisan smile, the coat draped capelike over the shoulders speak of him not only as a successful member of the working bourgeoisie, but also as the holder of important spiritual and aesthetic values.

   • 2001 December 10, “With all these crawls, I’m walking”, in Electronic Media, page 25:

     Those proverbial powers-that-be in television are trying to accomplish what one would think impossible: to make the picture irrelevant to television instead of its raison d’etre. It’s a little—OK, just a little—like slapping a copyright notice along the bottom of the Mona Lisa. Right: Little TV fare could reasonably be termed Mona Lisan. But trashing up the screen with typographical and animated junk is a slap in the viewer’s face and a sign of intense disrespect for the medium itself.

   • 2003, Niranjan Singh Tasneem, The Facets of Human Life: Moods and Moments‎^[8], Delhi: Indian Publishers Distributors, pages 192 and 283:

     […] whenever he happened to see “a Mona Lisan smile” […] Mostly we consider this woman no other than his beloved, as a result of which some sort of a Mona Lisan smile flickers on our faces.

   • 2003, Wendell A. Duffield, When Pele Stirs: A Volcanic Tale of Hawaiʻi, Hemp, and High-Jinks, iUniverse, Inc., →ISBN, page 260:

     Sleeping or awake, her facial expression carried an enchanting smile...a hint of Mona Lisan mystery.

   • 2010, Martina Pfeiler, Poetry Goes Intermedia: US-amerikanische Lyrik des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts aus kultur- und medienwissenschaftlicher Perspektive, Narr Francke Attempto Verlag, page 220:

     “Sand’s smile at this juncture: Mona Lisan”.

Synonyms

• Giocondan