grisette en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /ɡɹɪˈzɛt/ (UK)
Etymology
Borrowed from French grisette, from gris (“grey”) + -ette, named after the color of the fabric associated with low value or bad quality.
Meanings
-
A (chiefly French) girl or young married woman of the lower class; especially, a young working-class woman of perceived easy morals.
[…]Paris from afar sounded its fanfare of masked balls with the laugh of grisettes.
1886, Gustave Flaubert, chapter VI, in Eleanor Marx-Aveling, transl., Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners […], London: Vizetelly & Co., […], →OCLC, part II, page 129:‘What a fuss is here, indeed, about a little grisette: why, one would think Beresford had carried off an heiress.’
1791, Charlotte Smith, Celestina, Broadview, published 2004, page 263:he enjoyed the immense luxury not only of lovemaking but also of sleeping and drowsing beside this gentle and composed and somewhat melancholy woman, who was not a fille de joie in the professional sense but more like a grisette.
1983, Lawrence Durrell, Sebastian (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 1015:The anticipations of the shopkeeper were realized, and his rooms soon became notorious through the charms of the sprightly grisette.
1842, Edgar Allan Poe, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt:
- The grisette amanita (Amanita vaginata), an edible mushroom in the amanita family.
-
A variety of low-alcohol beer that is light in body, with a noticeable tartness similar to other farmhouse ales.
Largely grounded in European classics, the ever-changing roster of taps cycles through grisettes, altbiers, kölsches, and saisons, but also trots out “beastly” concoctions like Imperial IPAs as well.
2019, Douglas Trattner, Moon Cleveland, Avalon Travel, →ISBN:Oral accounts of those who remember the old grisettes say they were low-alcohol, light-bodied, saison-like golden ales of no great distinction.
2004, Phil Markowski, Farmhouse Ales: Culture and Craftsmanship in the European Tradition, Brewers Publications, →ISBN:She talked animatedly, with her hands, and her excitement about something as boring as the differences between a saison and a grisette was contagious.
2018, Suzanne Baltsar, Trouble Brewing, Gallery Books, →ISBN, pages 20–21:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| grisettes | Number=Plur | lexicographic |