grisette
English
Etymology
Borrowed from French grisette, from gris (“grey”) + -ette, named after the color of the fabric associated with low value or bad quality.
Pronunciation
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- Rhymes: -ɛt
Noun
grisette (plural grisettes)
- A French girl or young married woman of the lower class; especially, a young working-class woman of perceived easy morals.
- 1842, Edgar Allan Poe, ‘The Mystery of Marie Rogêt’:
- The anticipations of the shopkeeper were realized, and his rooms soon became notorious through the charms of the sprightly grisette.
- 1983, Lawrence Durrell, Sebastian, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 1015:
- he enjoyed the immense luxury not only of lovemaking but also of sleeping and drowsing beside this gentle and composed and somewhat melancholy woman, who was not a fille de joie in the professional sense but more like a grisette.
- 1842, Edgar Allan Poe, ‘The Mystery of Marie Rogêt’: