Thursday, April 08, 2010

Gamine


My current favorite word.

gam·ine

[gam-een, -in, ga-meen]
–noun
1.
a neglected girl who is left to run about the streets.
2.
a diminutive or very slender girl, esp. one who is pert, impudent, or playfully mischievous.

Gamine is a French word, the feminine form of gamin, originally meaning urchin, waif or playful, naughty child.

The word was used in English from about the mid 19th century (for example, by Thackeray in 1840 in one of his Parisian sketches), but, in the 20th century, came to be applied in its more modern sense of a slim, often boyish, wide-eyed young woman who is, or is perceived to be, mischievous, teasing or sexually appealing.


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