Demimonde

/ˈdɛmiːmɒnd/ · noun

Meaning

(chiefly historical (19th-century France)) A class of women maintained by wealthy protectors; female courtesans or prostitutes as a group..

Definitions by Sense

1. (chiefly historical (19th-century France)) A class of women maintained by wealthy protectors; female courtesans or prostitutes as a group.
2. (by extension) A group having little respect or reputation.
3. (by extension) A member of such a class or group of persons.

Example Sentences

A most remarkable instance of this was afforded in the play of Camille by the performance of the supper-scene. The stage in this scene is supposed to represent a supper-room, enlivened by the presence of a party of young Parisians, more gay, indeed, than respectable, but still Parisians, and Parisians of the demimonde, which, of the two halves that go to make up the whole of the monde, preserves the hemisphere of manners while it throws away the hemisphere of decorum.

To give a good and solid education to the gentle sex would tend to double the army of progress, to draw closer the domestic relations, and to annihilate that extra-conjugal society (the demi[-]monde of [Alexandre] Dumas the younger) which is now so very prosperous.

Paris society borrows fashions from the demi-monde, and the demi-monde borrows manners from the extravagant princesses, countesses, and viscountesses. All Parie has been stirred with the Sardanapalian entertainment, which a leader of the demi-monde gave on the eve of Lent to the best male society in the Empire. The ladies were all unquestionably from young [Alexandre] Dumas' panier à quinze sous; but their manners and their toilettes were, we are told, all that could be desired.

Skating Rinks are chiefly patronised by members of the demi[-]monde.

Racing is confined almost exclusively to the upper and middle classes in Hungary, though it is always attended by numbers of the demi[-]monde.

This is the last straw. In your infatuation for this man—a man who is notorious for his excesses, a man your father would not have allowed to so much as mention your name—you have reflected the demi-monde rather than the circles in which you have presumably grown up.

The ballet offered another way up for daughters, maybe not through marriage, but through training for a world that didn't need marriage to be glorious—the Petersburg demimonde with its parties, restaurans, hothouse flowers in witner, chinovniki, and officers entertaining mistresses and setting them up with children in apartments. The demimonde was an alternate, semi-hidden social world, to which ballet was firmly linked.

the literary demimonde

Synonyms for demimonde

Antonyms for demimonde

Related Words

Word Forms

• demimondes
• demi-monde

Usage Notes

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