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ci-devant. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
ci-devant, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
ci-devant in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
Borrowed from French ci-devant.
Adjective
ci-devant (not comparable)
- Former, late.
1831, L E L[andon], chapter XIV, in Romance and Reality. , volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, , →OCLC, 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.
1846, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], Lucretia: Or The Children of Night. , volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, , →OCLC:The ci-devant marquis was caught disguised in her apartment. She betrayed for him a good, easy friend of the people who had long loved her, and revenge is sweet.
- 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, published 2007, page 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 […]
Anagrams
French
Pronunciation
Adjective
ci-devant
- (archaic) former, one-time
Descendants
Noun
ci-devant m or f by sense (plural ci-devant)
- (historical, French Revolution) former aristocrat
Further reading