dandizette

English

Etymology

An 19th-century caricature of a dandizette.

From dandy +‎ -ette.

Noun

dandizette (plural dandizettes)

1. (archaic) A female dandy.

   Synonyms: (obsolete) dandyess, (archaic, rare) quaintrelle

   Antonyms: see Thesaurus:dandy

   • 1849, Thomas II Wright, England Under the House of Hanover:

     The accompanying cut is from a rather broadly caricatured print of a dandizette of the year 1819.

   • 1871, The Atlantic - Volume 27, page 162:

     A witch, be it understood, Funny and fair and good, Tiny and pretty and jolly; A love, a sweet, a prize, a pet, An airy, fairy dandizette, A maid of honor to Cupid god, A fairy girl of the period, A wee little lady of delicate breeding, Foreign to horror and melancholy, and guiltless of any uncanny proceeding.

   • 1871, George Augustus Sala, Edmund Hodgson Yates, Temple Bar - Volume 33, page 98:

     Men are, perhaps, slower in following new modes than women, and more averse to making themselves ridiculous ; but a dandy is an inferior specimen of human nature to a dandizette — as some old song calls the female of the species.

   • 1969, John Russell Brown, Shakespeare's Plays in Performance, page 111:

     His pantomimic colloquies with the other sex, too, were inimitable - his mincing affectation, when addressing a dandizette; his broad bold style, when making love to a fisherwoman - were all true to Nature.