fainéant
Americanadjective
noun
-
fainéants
plural
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of fainéant
First recorded in 1610–20; from French, earlier fait-nient, literally, “he does nothing,” folk etymology of Old French faignant “idler,” noun use of present participle of se faindre “to shirk ”; see feign, faint
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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Another example is Arthur, in some romances "the blameless king," in others un roi fainéant.
From Homer and His Age by Andrew Lang
The government of a native state by clerks and chuprassies, with a beautiful fainéant Political Agent for Sundays and Hindu festivals, is, I am told, a thing of the past.
From Twenty-One Days in India; and, the Teapot Series by George Robert Aberigh-Mackay
Bull, the sixth boy in No. 7, was the only fainéant among them, though he did occasionally help to keep off the smaller fry.
From Eric by F. W. (Frederic William) Farrar
It is only for the loafer that he has no pity; when he has called a fellow-creature fainéant, he has used the strongest invective in his vocabulary.
From English Pharisees and French Crocodiles and Other Anglo-French Typical Characters by Max O'Rell
And whereas Sieyès condemned his grand functionary to the repose of a roi fainéant, Bonaparte secured to him practically all the powers assigned by Sieyès to the Consuls for Peace and for War.
From The Life of Napoleon I (Volume 1 of 2) by John Holland Rose
Bold might the planton be; we were no fainéants.
From The Enormous Room by E. E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings
Others are weaklings, fainéants; but one, the most dread woman in Frankish history, Fredegonda, the queen of Chilperic, towers above all in this masque of slaughter and treachery.
From Hero Tales and Legends of the Rhine by Lewis Spence
Any quantity of heraldries of knaves and fainéants you may find in what they call their 'history': but this is probably the first time you ever read the name of Robert of Luzarches.
From Our Fathers Have Told Us Part I. The Bible of Amiens by John Ruskin
She extols them both, and makes over to their joint care and tuition the fainéants aforesaid.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, Number 358, August 1845 by Various
After Dagobert's death these mayors practically ruled in the place of the Merovingian monarchs, who became mere "do-nothing kings,"—rois fainéants, as the French call them.
From An Introduction to the History of Western Europe by James Harvey Robinson
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