Strephon

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Proper noun

[edit]

Strephon

  1. Traditional masculine name used for the male lover in pastoral poetry.
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter IX, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, [], →OCLC, book VI:
      As when two doves, or two wood-pigeons, or as when Strephon and Phyllis (for that comes nearest to the mark) are retired into some pleasant solitary grove, to enjoy the delightful conversation of Love []
    • 1855, Frederick Lawrence, The life of Henry Fielding:
      [] those palmy days of pastoral revelry;—when every lover was a Damon or a Strephon, and his beloved a Delia or a Celia.
    • 1862, Theodore Winthrop, Edwin Brothertoft:
      I am still sick with his sentimentality of a Strephon. He is a flippant coxcomb.
    • 1901, The Atlantic Monthly, volume 87:
      All their tunes were gay and lively ones, and the younger men moved their feet to the music, while a Strephon at the lower end of the lists seized upon a blooming Chloe, and the two began to dance "as if," quoth the Colonel, "the musicians were so many tarantula doctors."

Noun

[edit]

Strephon (plural Strephons)

  1. A pastoral male lover.

Anagrams

[edit]