demirep
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From demi- + reputation.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
demirep (plural demireps)
- (colloquial, dated) A woman of doubtful reputation or suspected character; an adventuress.
- 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 569:
- he had no knowledge of that character which is vulgarly called a demirep; that is to say, a woman who intrigues with every man she likes, under the name and appearance of virtue [...] in short, whom everybody knows to be what nobody calls her.
- 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, I.i:
- Madam by this Time Lady Brittle is the Talk of half the Town—and I doubt not in a week the Men will toast her as a Demirep.
- 1813, Leigh Hunt, in a journal article about the prince.(Chambers, R.. "'The Book of Days': A miscellany of popular antiquities. Londres: W & R Chambers, 1832." Google Books):
- […] in short, this delightful, blissful, wise, pleasurable, honourable, virtuous, true, and immortal prince, was a violator of his word, a libertine, over head and ears in disgrace, a despiser of domestic ties, the companion of gamblers and demireps […] .
- 1822, Thomas de Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater:
- […] the greater part of our confessions (that is, spontaneous and extra-judicial confessions) proceed from demireps, adventurers, or swindlers […] .
- 1904, Oscar Wilde, The Ballad of Reading Gaol:
- With the mincing step of a demirep / Some sidled up the stairs […] .
- 1932, Duff Cooper, Talleyrand, Folio Society, published 2010, page 65:
- In this new world, ruled by charlatans and dominated by demireps, Talleyrand may have found much to shock his sense of decorum, but little to outrage his moral standards.
References[edit]
- “demirep”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.