petit maître

petit maître

English

Etymology

From French petit-maître.

Noun

petit maître (plural petits maîtres)

1. (now chiefly archaic) A fop or dandy. [from 18th c.]
   • 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter 48, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume II, London: Harrison and Co., […], published 1781, OCLC 316121541:

     The unfortunate petit maitre, driven to the extremity of his condescension, acknowledged it to be a masterly refinement […] .

2. (chiefly derogatory) A lesser master of something, especially of some artistic skill; a minor talent. [from 19th c.]
   • 1979, Angela Carter, ‘Latin Rhythms’, in Shaking a Leg, Vintage 2013, p. 563:

     Monstrous critical overkill of an even more up-market kind has transformed the Argentinian petit maître, Borges, into one of the Great Writers of our Time and his most recent collection, The Book of Sand […] shows signs that he is content humbly to acquiesce in this opinion.

   • 2015, Laura Cumming, The Guardian, 15 November:

     The point of this survey is to present Calder as a giant of modernism instead of a petit-maître of whimsical toys.