cassolette

cassolette

English

Etymology

From French cassolette, from Spanish cazoleta (“pan”).

Noun

cassolette (countable and uncountable, plural cassolettes)

1. (countable) A box or vase with a perforated cover to emit perfumes.
   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, OCLC 1026761782, (please specify the book or page number):

     Far aloft, over the Altar of the Fatherland, on their tall crane standards of iron, swing pensile our antique Cassolettes or Pans of Incense; dispensing sweet incense-fumes[.]

2. The natural scent of a woman.
   • 2015, Peter Golden, Wherever There Is Light: A Novel, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 234:

     “Don't you like the word cassolette, Julian?” He supposed Thayer thought she was being clever. Cassolette was also a reference to the natural fragrance of a woman.

   • 2015, Christopher Buckley, But Enough About You: Essays, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 234:

     I know you're in a hurry to find out about cassolette, but please first note that “if you use your palm, rub it over your own and your partner's armpit area first.”

   • 2008, Tamsin Kelly, The Joy of Sex: Will this sex makeover hit the spot?, The Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-health/3353522/The-Joy-of-Sex-Will-this-sex-makeover-hit-the-spot.html

     I'm still bemused by the original "cassolette", which turns out to be "the natural perfume of a clean woman: her greatest natural asset after her beauty", and definitely not to be confused with a small hotpot.

References

• cassolette in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.sɔ.lɛt/

Noun

cassolette f (plural cassolettes)

1. cassolette

Further reading

• “cassolette”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.