demimondaine

American  

[dem-ee-mon-deyn, duh-mee-mawn-den] / ˌdɛm i mɒnˈdeɪn, də mi mɔ̃ˈdɛn /

noun

plural

demimondaines

1. a woman of the demimonde.

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adjective

1. of or relating to the demimonde.

demimondaine British  

/ ˌdɛmɪˈmɒndeɪn, dəmimɔ̃dɛn /

noun

1. a woman of the demimonde

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Etymology

Origin of demimondaine

1890–95; < French, equivalent to demimonde demimonde + -aine feminine adj. suffix < Latin -āna -an

Example Sentences

A demimondaine with a shocking reputation, by the time of her death, in 1954, Colette was an institution, the first French woman of letters ever honored with a state funeral.

From New York Times • Feb. 6, 2023

Oren, more interested in small gestures than gleaming sound, begins the first scene with bumptious brasses and a breakneck tempo that make the room spin, spelling disaster for Verdi’s hard-partying demimondaine.

From New York Times • Jun. 30, 2022

Born in Paris in 1868, Jane Avril was the bastard daughter of an Italian nobleman and a morbid demimondaine whose cruelty for a while sent Jane to an asylum.

From Time Magazine Archive

A few months later, Lloyd Webber showed Nunn an unpublished Eliot cat poem sent to him by the poet's widow Valerie, about a woeful demimondaine named Grizabella.

From Time Magazine Archive

He could guess that her high, proud spirit would rebel, on the one hand, at the prospect of pinching poverty and ignoble work and, on the other, from the alternative existence of the demimondaine.

From Louisiana Lou A Western Story by Winter, William West