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petit maître. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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petit maître in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
From French petit-maître.
Noun
petit maître (plural petits maîtres)
- (now chiefly archaic) A fop or dandy.
- Synonyms: macaroni, popinjay; see also Thesaurus:dandy
- (chiefly derogatory) A lesser master of something, especially of some artistic skill; a minor talent.
1979, Angela Carter, “Latin Rhythms”, in Shaking a Leg, Vintage, published 2013, page 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 November 15, Laura Cumming, The Guardian:The point of this survey is to present Calder as a giant of modernism instead of a petit-maître of whimsical toys.