| 释义 |
‖ petit-maître|pətimɛtr|
[Fr., lit. little master.]
1. An effeminate man; a dandy, fop, coxcomb. Also as adj.
1711Addison Spect. No. 83 ⁋5 All his Men were Petits Maitres, and all his Women Coquets. 1744H. Walpole Lett. to Mann 22 July, A little, pert petit-maître figure. 1754Richardson Grandison (1781) II. v. 88 Do you pretend, in such an age of petit maitres, to live single? 1820T. Mitchell Comm. Aristoph. I. p. cliii, A boon companion for the petits-maitres of the Ilyssus. 1843James Forest Days (1847) 37 The long and hanging sleeves of the loose coat he wore were..one of the distinguishing marks of a petit maître of that day. 1880Shorthouse J. Inglesant xxxviii. 537 He had..the look of a petit maître, and even, what is more contemptible still, of a petit-maître priest. 1883C. M. Yonge Stray Pearls I. x. 115 He would be ashamed to count kindred with that effeminate petite maître! c1905E. Newman in H. Van Thal Fanfare for E. Newman (1955) x. 145 It is the petit-maître Mozart, tripping along with his manneristic little elegancies of walk and gesture but scarcely conscious of the bigness of the world around him or of the real nature of the humanity that strives in it. 1939‘A. Bridge’ Four-Part Setting vi. 63 His manners were slightly petit-maître. 1948D. Cecil Two Quiet Lives 88 At moments..one is tempted to dismiss him [sc. Horace Walpole] as an affected petit-maître who happened to be gifted with a talent for letter writing.
2. A ‘minor master’ with reference to musicians, writers, etc. (usu. derog.).
1856J. B. Waring in O. Jones Gram. Ornament (1865) xviii. 132 As regards another main feature in Elizabethan ornament, viz. the complicated and fanciful interlaced bands, we must seek its origin in the..designs of the class of engravers known as the ‘petits maîtres’ of Germany and the Netherlands. 1934C. Lambert Music Ho! iii. 168 Liadoff, a real petit-maître, produced at rare intervals a few miniatures of extraordinary felicity. 1960Times 8 Mar. 4/7 Michel is accounted a petit-maître and in French comparison does not reach the same height as Théodore Rousseau. 1963Listener 3 Jan. 45/3 He [sc. Puccini] was a musician of great artistic integrity who clearly recognized his limitations... But such awareness does not make him a petit maître any more than it did Chopin, Bizet, Ravel. 1975Daily Tel. 10 June 11/4 Pierre Prins is one of those French petits maitres whom, if we only saw their best work, we would rate rightly.
Hence (nonce-wds.) petit-ˈmaitreship, petit-ˈmaitreism. So ‖ petite-maîtresse, the female counterpart of a dandy, an élégante.
1818Lady Morgan Ft. Macarthy (1819) II. i. 68 (Stanf.) At the head of these pious petite maitresses stood Miss Crawley. 1822New Monthly Mag. IV. 110 None of the petit-maitreship of the art. 1824Ibid. X. 518 We..begin to give up our old ideas of their coxcombry, gaiety, and petit-maitreism. 1823Scott Peveril xxx, ‘You stand excused, Master Empson’, said the petite maitresse, sinking back on the downy couch. 1840Penny Cycl. XVIII. 167/1 (Pinkerton) The Frenchified style of thinking and air of petit-maitre-ship affected by the quondam laborious antiquary. |