Dictionary

gräfin en · NOUN

Etymology

From German Gräfin.

Meanings

1. A German countess.
   • Mrs. Grahame was puzzled at finding that her letters of introduction, whose probable efficacy she had measured by that of the £4985 19s. 7½d., expended at 180, Belgrave Square, produced at Carlsbad a large assortment of princes and princesses, grafs and gräfins, and super-induced young Englishmen, coroneted and otherwise, whom she had failed of attracting to any one of her two balls, one concert, and six dinners, in London. 1862, Edward Heneage Dering, chapter XII, in A Great Sensation, volume I, London: Hurst and Blackett, […], page 155:
   • […]old women are seeking to earn a few groschen by carrying home the purchases of buyers, and even a sprinkling of lady baronesses and gräfins, each attended by a footman,[…] 1884 Christmas, Mrs. Alexander [pen name; Anne French Hector], “Mrs. Vereker’s Courier Maid”, in The Gentleman’s Annual, chapter III, page 75:
   • Having here little to do but viser passports and flirt with married gräfins rather fat than fair, he had applied himself to a study of prophecy. [1859], “Sinking a Sly Shaft”, in Getting On: A Tale of Modern English Life, volume I, London: James Hogg & Sons, page 267:
   • Emerald enclosed faith, though gräfins needed faith mostly in grafs. 1995, Peter Vansittart, A Safe Conduct, Peter Owen Publishers, →ISBN, page 57:

Forms

Coordinates

graf