cicisbea means the female companion or lover of a (chiefly married) man, especially in eighteenth-century Italy. It carries an Arena rating of 1387, earned across 7 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, cicisbea ranks #613 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #1,383 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words, #2,056 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #2,767 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say.
Why “cicisbea” is a great word
A female companion or lover of a married man, most notably within the formalized social system of eighteenth-century Italy. From Italian cicisbea, the feminine form of cicisbeo, a term of onomatopoeic origin. Unlike the cicisbeo, the publicly accepted cavalier servente attending a married lady, or the more clandestine mistress, a cicisbea occupied a peculiar, semi-legible social space: neither wife nor secret, but a recognized and tolerated fixture. She is the rustle of silk in a palazzo's antechamber, the cool hand accepting a glass of lemonade at the opera, the third place-setting at a dinner where all conversation remains impeccably polite—a study in the formal accommodation of desire, where the heart's irregularities are pressed into the starched linen of social ritual.
Etymology
From Italian cicisbea.
noun
- The female companion or lover of a (chiefly married) man, especially in eighteenth-century Italy.e.g.“The instant he was taken ill, he was persuaded he should dye, and refused to see anybody; even my neighbour, Anna Frescobaldi, his Cicisbea of 30 years standing was forbid.” — 1876, Dr Doran, ‘Mann’ and Manners at the Court of Florence, 1740–1786, page 143:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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