mignon
English
Etymology
From French mignon, from Middle French mignon (“lover, darling, favourite”), from Old French mignon (“dainty, pleasing, gentle, kind”), from Frankish *minnjo (“love, friendship, affection, memory”), from Proto-Germanic *minþijō, *mindijō (“affectionate thought, care”), from Proto-Indo-European *men-, *mnā- (“to think”). Cognate with Old High German minnja (“love, care, affection, desire, memory”), Old Saxon minnea (“love”). More at mind. Compare also minion and Dutch minnen (“to love”).
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈmɪnjɒn/, /ˈmɪnjɑ̃/
- (US) IPA(key): /mɪnˈjɑn/
Audio (AU) (file)
Adjective
mignon (comparative more mignon, superlative most mignon)
- Small and cute; pretty in a delicate way; dainty.
- 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), OCLC 630079698, page 127:
- "Will you not wear these to-morrow?" said the King, offering one pair to Madame de Merœur; then, turning to her sister, he added, "I only hope yours are small enough for those mignon hands."
- 1867, Ouida [pseudonym; Maria Louise Ramé], “Cigarette en Condottiera”, in Under Two Flags: A Story of the Household and the Desert. […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], OCLC 367528873, page 194:
- It was the deep-blue, dreaming, haughty eyes of "Miladi" that he was bringing back to memory, not the brown mignon face that had been so late close to his in the light of the moon.
- 1867, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Ishmael, John and Robert Maxwell (1867), page 119:
- Or failing that, it must be sweet to be a famous beauty, a golden-haired divinity, like that fashionable enchantress whom she had seen often on the boulevards and in the Champs-Elysées—a mignon face, a figure delicate to fragility, almost buried amidst the luxury of a matchless set of sables, seated in the lightest and most elegant of victorias, behind a pair of thoroughbred blacks.
- 1899, Paul Leicester Ford, Janice Meredith: A Story of the American Revolution, Volume 1, Dodd, Mead & Company (1899), page 64:
- What she looked at was an unset miniature of a young girl, with a wealth of darkest brown hair, powdered to a gray, and a little straight nose with just a suggestion of a tilt to it, giving the mignon face an expression of pride that the rest of the countenance by no means aided.
- 1911, Marcin Barner, "Britz of Headquarters", The Branford Opinion, 29 September 1911:
- Exactly what my grandfather says," Dorothy retorted, fun flashing in that mignon face.
- 1987, Persistence of Vision: The Journal of the Film Faculty of the City University of New York, Issues 5-8, page 68:
- Starting a dance can be as fortuitous as its termination: a very short, mignon girl asks a tall guy to dance with her, then drops him a moment later without a word.
- 2002, Seçil Büker, “The Film Does not End with an Ecstatic Kiss”, in Deniz Kandiyoti; Ayşe Saktanber, editor, Fragments of Culture: The Everyday of Modern Turkey, Rutgers University Press, →ISBN, page 161:
- Magazines dubbed her 'a girl for the salons', 'the pretty girl' of the Turkish cinema, perfectly suited to the role of a blonde, mignon girl who had been educated at the best schools. In later years she herself would say, 'I was cute and sweet, but unable to project the image of a sexy woman, […]
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Noun
mignon (plural mignons)
- (rare, obsolete) A cute or pretty person; a dandy; a pretty child. [18th–19th c.]
- 1789, John Moore, Zeluco, Valancourt 2008, p. 264:
- “I wish the blow he dealt to that fine essenced mignon had beat his brains out.”
- 1789, John Moore, Zeluco, Valancourt 2008, p. 264:
- (historical) One of the court favourites of Henry III of France. [from 20th c.]
- 2003, Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization, Harvard 2003, p. 330:
- When the mignons, barefoot and clad in sacks with holes for their heads and feet, marched with Henry in a penitential procession, lashing their backs, one wit opined that they should have aimed their blows lower.
- 2005, Rebecca Zorach, Blood, Milk, Ink, Gold, University of Chicago 2005, p. 220:
- Many commentators claimed hyperbolically that, because of their outrageous fashions, it was difficult to tell whether the mignons were male or female.
- 2003, Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization, Harvard 2003, p. 330:
Anagrams
- Monnig
French
Etymology
From Middle French mignon, from Old French mignon (“dainty, pleasing, gentle, kind”), from Frankish *minnjo (“love, friendship, affection, memory”), from Proto-Germanic *minþijō, *mindijō (“affectionate thought, care”), from Proto-Indo-European *men-, *mnā- (“to think”). Cognate with Old High German minnja (“love, care, affection, desire, memory”), Old Saxon minnea (“love”). More at mind.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /mi.ɲɔ̃/
audio (file)
Adjective
mignon (feminine mignonne, masculine plural mignons, feminine plural mignonnes)
- cute (of a baby, an animal, etc.)
- cute (sexually attractive)
Synonyms
- joli
Derived terms
- filet mignon
- péché mignon
- troglodyte mignon
Descendants
- → English: mignon
- → Italian: mignon
- → Portuguese: mignon
- → Turkish: minyon
Noun
mignon m (plural mignons)
- a small pastry
Further reading
- “mignon”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Italian
Etymology
Borrowed from French mignon.
Adjective
mignon (invariable)
- mignon (small and dainty)
Further reading
- mignon in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
Portuguese
Etymology
Borrowed from French mignon.
Noun
mignon m (plural mignons)
- (Brazil) Clipping of filé mignon.
Adjective
mignon m or f (plural mignons or mignon)
- (Brazil) mignon (small and dainty)
- (Brazil, slang) cute (sexually attractive)
Further reading
- “mignon” in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa.
Romanian
Etymology
From French mignon.
Adjective
mignon m or n (feminine singular mignonă, masculine plural mignoni, feminine and neuter plural mignone)
- cute
Declension
| singular | plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| masculine | neuter | feminine | masculine | neuter | feminine | ||
| nominative/ accusative | indefinite | mignon | mignonă | mignoni | mignone | ||
| definite | mignonul | mignona | mignonii | mignonele | |||
| genitive/ dative | indefinite | mignon | mignone | mignoni | mignone | ||
| definite | mignonului | mignonei | mignonilor | mignonelor | |||