ci-devantadj.n.
/siːdəˈvɒ̃/ 1. Former, ‘late’; that was formerly.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > relative time > the past > antecedence or being earlier > [adjective] > former (of persons)
umquhile1431
old1435
quondam1547
ancient1681
ci-devant1790
ex1823
former1905
past1915
1790 R. Burns Let. 8 Aug. (2003) II. 46 A ci-devant friend of mine.
1812 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Cantos I & II Notes 128 The ci-devant Anglo-consul of Athens.
1847 H. W. Longfellow Evangeline ii. iii. 83 They marvelled to see the wealth of the ci-devant blacksmith.
2. n. In the language of the French Revolution, a man of rank, i.e. one formerly such, the Republic having suppressed distinctions of nobility.
ΚΠ
1871 J. Morley J. de Maistre in Crit. Misc. 152 Give me the lives of..three hundred thousand ci-devants and aristocrats.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1889; most recently modified version published online December 2018).
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adj.n.1790