cicisbeo

American  

[chee-chiz-bay-oh, si-sis-bee-oh, chee-cheez-be-oh] / ˌtʃi tʃɪzˈbeɪ oʊ, sɪˈsɪs biˌoʊ, ˌtʃi tʃizˈbɛ oʊ /

noun

• cicisbei
  plural

1. an escort or lover of a married woman.

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cicisbeo British  

/ tʃitʃizˈbɛːo /

noun

1. the escort or lover of a married woman, esp in 18th-century Italy

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cicisbei
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of cicisbeo

From Italian

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cicisbeo cicisbei

The cicisbeo was the professed gallant of a married woman, who attended her at all public entertainments, it being considered unfashionable for the husband to be escort.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 3 "Chitral" to "Cincinnati" by Various

Father Andrea, who was of Florentine birth, would go with them; and with such a cicisbeo, they would see and understand all the treasures of the past and the present, antique and modern art.

From London Pride Or When the World Was Younger by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

There was nothing too mean, too repulsive, for the domestic brute—the cicisbeo, the priest, the half-witted page—to undergo, in the stupid belief that the power of a philtre increased with its nastiness.

From La Sorcière: The Witch of the Middle Ages by Jules Michelet

And who are you that talk to me of dishonour?—you that come straying here out of the night with your cicisbeo at your heels?

From Sir John Constantine Memoirs of His Adventures At Home and Abroad and Particularly in the Island of Corsica: Beginning with the Year 1756 by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

His account of the cicisbeo and his duties, whether in Nice, Florence, or Rome, is certainly one of the most interesting that we have.

From Travels through France and Italy by T. (Tobias) Smollett

We divine the coming age of cicisbei and castrati.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 6 "Groups, Theory of" to "Gwyniad" by Various

Before long he will be dust, and then it will be the turn of Don Gastone, and frati will give place to cicisbei.

From The Fool Errant Being the Memoirs of Francis-Anthony Strelley, Esq., Citizen of Lucca by Maurice Henry Hewlett

The ladies sit within, and the cicisbei stand on the foot-boards, on each side of the coach, entertaining them with their discourse.

From Travels through France and Italy by T. (Tobias) Smollett

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