coryphée

See also: coryphee

English

WOTD – 5 January 2020

Etymology

Borrowed from French coryphée, from Latin coryphaeus, from Ancient Greek κορυφαῖος (koruphaîos, “leader of the chorus in an Ancient Greek drama”), from κορῠφή (koruphḗ, “top of the head, crown”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂- (“head, top; horn”)) + -ῐος (-ios, suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘belonging to, pertaining to’).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kɒɹɪˈfeɪ/

• Audio (Received Pronunciation):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /kɑɹɪˈfeɪ/, /-ɹə-/
• Hyphenation: co‧ry‧phée

Noun

coryphée (plural coryphées)

1. Synonym of coryphaeus
   1. (Ancient Greece, drama, historical) The conductor or leader of the chorus of a drama.
      • 1986, Ralph P. Locke, “The Rue Monsigny and Salle Taitbout: Music in the Formative Years”, in Music, Musicians and the Saint-Simonians, Chicago, Ill., London: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, part 3 (Practice), page 86:

        The piece [...] contains a passage for men's voices marked "Les Travailleurs," topped by a tenor solo (in alto clef) marked "Coryphée," a term originally meaning leader of the chorus, as in a Greek tragedy. [...] [T]he aforementioned "Coryphée" line grows out of a recitative for first tenor.

      • 2013, Lucie Kayas, Christopher Brent Murray, “Olivier Messiaen and Portique pour une fille de France”, in Christopher Dingle, Robert Fallon, editors, Messiaen Perspectives, Farnham, Surrey, Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, →ISBN; republished volumes 1 (Sources and Influences), Abingdon, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2016, →ISBN, page 52:

        Two coryphées, or coryphæi, the term for the leader of a Greek chorus, were stationed in towers on either side of the stage. A device borrowed from Léon Chancerel's Mission de Jeanne d'Arc, the coryphées are present for the entire length of the drama. Like the messenger, they commented upon the action in a Manichean dialogue: one cheering on Joan of Arc, the other deriding her.

   2. (by extension) The chief or leader of an interest or party.
      • 1748, George Sale et al., “The Antient State of the Gauls, to Their Conquest by Julius Cæsar, and from thence to the Irruption of the Franks”, in An Universal History, from the Earliest Account of Time. […], volume XVIII, London: Printed for T[homas] Osborne, […]; A[ndrew] Millar, […]; and J. Osborn, […], →OCLC, book IV (The History of the Carthaginians), section IV, pages 630–631:

        It was likewiſe cuſtomary to drink hard at theſe kinds of feaſts; yet it ſeems, according to the ſame author [Posidonius], that the coryphee, or head-gueſt, always began firſt, and put the cup, or rather pitcher, about to his next neighbour, till it had gone round: for, it ſeems, they all drank out of the ſame veſſel, and no man could drink till it came to his turn, nor refuſe when it did.

      • 1823, Thomas Brown, the Younger [pseudonym; Thomas Moore], “Fable VIII. Louis Fourteenth’s Wig.”, in Fables for the Holy Alliance, Rhymes on the Road, &c. &c., London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], →OCLC, page 62:

        [...] Louis the Fourteenth,—that glory, / That Coryphée of all crown'd pates, / That pink of the Legitimates— [...]

      • 1834, [Edward Moor], “Fragments—Second. Paganism—Papacy—Hinduism—Nuns—Coronation—&c. &c.”, in Oriental Fragments, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 107:

        And now, whip—whip—whip—as fast as St. Francis [of Assisi] himself, or St. Dominic Loricatus, coryphee of flagellants, could himself have flagellated.

      • 1836 February 27, Thomas Moore, “[Diary of Thomas Moore.] 1836.”, in Lord John Russell [John Russell, 1st Earl Russell], editor, Memoirs, Journal, and Correspondence of Thomas Moore, volume VII, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, published 1856, →OCLC, page 145:

        Dined with Bryan: company, Shiel, Wyse, and a Mr. Finlay. Talked of an infinity of subjects, Shiel giving some good mimicries of Dan, and having evidently no vast respect for his great Coryphée.

      • 1937, Leon Trotsky, “The Soviet Thermidor”, in Max Eastman, transl., The Revolution Betrayed: What is the Soviet Union and Where is It Going?, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Company, →OCLC, page 88:

        Beneath this dramatic duel of "coryphées" on the open political scene, shifts have taken place in the relations between classes, and, no less important, profound changes in the psychology of the recently revolutionary masses.

      • 1980, Ilse N. Bulhof, “Structure, Development, and Progress: Dilthey’s Views on the Concrete Course of History”, in Wilhelm Dilthey: A Hermeneutic Approach to the Study of History and Culture (Martinus Nijhoff Philosophy Library; 2), The Hague, Boston, Mass.: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, →DOI, →ISBN, page 187:

        Even the coryphee of the Annales school, Fernand Braudel, affirms the historian's traditional concern about time – although, as we will see below, he himself did more than any other historian to undermine the profession's preoccupation with time, movement and development.

      • 1985, Alexis de Tocqueville, “13. To Gustave de Beaumont [Paris, April 4, 1832]”, in James Toupin, Roger Boesche, transl., edited by Roger Boesche, Selected Letters on Politics and Society, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif, London: University of California Press, →ISBN, pages 79–80:

        You would have smiled inwardly on seeing with what admirable facility these coryphées of liberalism of 1828, these makers of 1830, easily sabre the first principles of civil liberty that we others, old royalists, would not abandon at any price.

2. (ballet) A ballet dancer ranking above a member of the corps de ballet and below a soloist.
   • 1839 March, William E[vans] Burton, “Leaves from a Life in London. No. VI. Coralie, the Coryphee.”, in William E[vans] Burton, editor, Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine and American Monthly Review, volume IV, number III, Philadelphia, Pa.: William E. Burton, […], →OCLC, page 157:

     Mademoiselle Coralie Montmorrillion, a talented artiste from the grand opera, at Paris, and now principal coryphée at the theatre royal— [...]

   • 1841 March, Phelm O’Toole, “An Irish Love Adventure”, in Bentley’s Miscellany, American edition, volume VII, New York, N.Y.: Published by Jemima M. Mason, (late Lewer,) […], →OCLC, page 241:

     A newspaper was in his hand, joy in his eyes, and as many capers in his toes as would make the fortunes of a Coryphée.

   • 1847, Albert [Richard] Smith, “Of the Morning Rehearsal”, in The Natural History of the Ballet-girl, London: D. Bogue, […], →OCLC, page 27:

     The Coryphées now arrive, as well as the Corps de Ballet; the former holding a higher rank and receiving a higher salary than the latter. They are pretty trim-built girls, with sallow faces and large eyes—the pallor that overspreads their features resulting from cosmetics and late hours. They work very hard, and get very little sleep; but they appear to be very merry amongst themselves for all that.

   • 1866 August 18, “Painted Ladies”, in The Round Table: A Saturday Review of Literature, Society, and Art, volume IV, New York, N.Y.: The Round Table Association, […], →OCLC, page 40, column 3:

     Go into the wealthiest and gayest quarters of the town and you shall see maidens of fifteen tripping along in scores with their young cheeks bechalked and bedizened in a manner that almost puts to the shame a coryphée of the grand opera.

   • 1981, T[homas] Coraghessan Boyle, Water Music, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, 2006, →ISBN, page 305:

     The sick throw away their crutches and dance like coryphées, the enfeebled strain to lift logs and boulders, [...]

   • 1988, Russell Sanjek, “The American Musical Theater 1865–1909”, in American Popular Music and Its Business: The First Four Hundred Years, volume II (From 1790 to 1909), New York, N.Y., Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, part 2 (1861 to 1909), page 303:

     Alarmed at what was to be performed there, New York's clergy had been threatening hellfire and damnation for weeks to all who went to see the dozens of beautiful coryphées imported from Milan, Berlin, Paris, and London in "as little as the law allows" promised by the management.

   • 2007, Mercedes Lackey, chapter 1, in Reserved for the Cat (The Elemental Masters; book 5; DAW Books Collections; no. 1417), New York, N.Y.: DAW Books, →ISBN:

     Ninette was only a sujet, a soloist, and a new-made one at that—one step up from the coryphées, and two from the quadrilles of the chorus, but not yet to the exalted status of the premier danseurs and as far from the etoiles as she was from the stars in the sky. Coryphées did not often have new shoes; one could see them backstage at rehearsal covering their old shoes with new silk, reblocking and reglueing the toes.

Alternative forms

• coryphee

Translations

ballet dancer ranking above a member of the corps de ballet and below a soloist

• Dutch: coryfee (nl) m
• French: coryphée (fr) m
• Hungarian: balettvezető
• Russian: корифе́й (ru) m (koriféj)

Further reading

• ballet dancer on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin coryphaeus, from Ancient Greek κορυφαῖος (koruphaîos, “leader of the chorus in an Ancient Greek drama”), from κορῠφή (koruphḗ, “top of the head, crown”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂- (“head, top; horn”)) + -ῐος (-ios, suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘belonging to, relating to’).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.ʁi.fe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

coryphée m (plural coryphées)

1. (Ancient Greece) leader of the ancient Greek chorus, coryphaeus

Descendants

• → Dutch: coryfee
• → English: coryphée
• → Romanian: corifeu
• → Swedish: koryfé

Further reading

• “coryphée”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.