cicisbeism

[chee-chiz-bey-iz-uhm, si-sis-bee-]

noun

1. the social custom of having a cicisbeo, as practiced especially in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Word History and Origins

Origin of cicisbeism¹

From the Italian word cicisbeismo, dating back to 1735–45. See cicisbeo, -ism

Example Sentences

There may also have been something very reassuring to Alfieri's apprehensions in the knowledge that he would be dealing, not with an Italian woman, accustomed and almost socially obliged to hold a man in the degrading bonds of cicisbeism, but with a foreigner, the jealously-guarded wife of a sort of legendary ogre, with whom, however much the old fury of love might awaken in him, there could by no possibility be anything beyond the most strictly watched friendship.

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Cicisbeism is not treated in extenso, as it should be, and I also missed the fragrant name of Sophie Arnould.

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She tempts fate when she carries on her gallantries and her Italian cicisbeism under the eyes of Scone Dacres.

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Here the Abbé, thoroughly acquainted with the various gradations of Cicisbeism, its pains and its pleasures, at once betrays himself.

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Cicisbeism is universal at Florence, tho' far from being always criminal, as is generally supposed by foreigners.

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