ci-devant
English
Etymology
Borrowed from French ci-devant.
Adjective
ci-devant (not comparable)
- Former, late.
- 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], OCLC 24531354, page 262:
- Hastily Beatrice performed both her own and Emily's toilette; for what with fatigue and terror, her companion was almost powerless: still their celerity excited the praise of the ci-devant professor of the fine arts.
- 1952, Isaac Asimov, Foundation and Empire (1974 Panther Books Ltd publication), part I: “The General”, chapter 1: ‘Search for Magicians’, page 10, ¶ 4
- The old patrician retreated noiselessly with a slow bow that was part of the ceremonious legacy left by a ci-devant aristocracy of the last century’s better days.
- 2006, Marsha Keith Schuchard, Why Mrs Blake Cried, Pimlico 2007, p. 157:
- During art collecting tours in Italy, Townley worked with the eccentric scholar Baron d'Hancarville (ci-devant Pierre Françoise Hughes), a specialist in pornographic art […]
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Anagrams
- Vedantic
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /si.d(ə).vɑ̃/
Audio (file)
Adjective
ci-devant
- former
- one-time
Related terms
- ci-après
- ci-contre
- ci-dessous
- ci-dessus
- ci-inclus
- ci-joint
Noun
ci-devant m or f by sense (plural ci-devant)
- (historical, French Revolution) former aristocrat
Further reading
- “ci-devant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.