demi-caractère

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French demi-caractère.

Adjective

demi-caractère (not comparable)

1. (about a work for the stage or a performer's part in it, dated) Which, in the historical French nomenclature, was halfway between serious (sérieux) and comic (comique); typically, where the protagonists or the plot were not noble enough compared to those derived from mythology or history, but could still convey serious emotions (see for example the 1886 Camille Bellaigue quotation about Bizet's opera Carmen under French demi-caractère)

   Synonym: demicharacter

French

Etymology

demi- (“demi-”) +‎ caractère (“character”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /də.mi.ka.ʁak.tɛʁ/

Adjective

demi-caractère (invariable)

1. demi-caractère
   • 1886, Camille Bellaigue, “Un siècle de musique française”, in Revue des deux mondes‎^[1], page 193:

     D’ailleurs porterez-vous Carmen à l’Opéra, sans reconnaître que tout l’en éloigne, ses proportions et son style, même quand il s’élève le plus ? Tous les chefs-d’œuvres ne sont pas de la même taille, et Carmen serait trop au large dans le cadre de Guillaume Tell ou des Huguenots. Voyons donc l’opéra comique de Bizet tel qu’il est : œuvre de demi-caractère et de juste milieu, faite à la mesure et pour la gloire du théâtre où elle est née.

     By the way, would you take [Bizet's opera] Carmen to the [Paris] Opera, without acknowledging that everything keeps it away from it, its proportions and its style, even when it elevates itself the most? All masterworks are not of the same size, and Carmen would be too much at large in the frame of Guillaume Tell or of Les Huguenots. Let us look at Bizet's comic opera as it is: a work of demi-caractère and just middle, made to the measure and for the glory of [the Opéra-Comique] where it was born.

Descendants

• → English: demi-caractère
• → English: demicharacter (calque)