Dictionary

ladette en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /læˈdɛt/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

Etymology tree Middle English ladde English lad Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Italic *-tosder.? Latin -ittus Old French -ettebor. Middle English -ette English -ette English ladette From lad + -ette.

Meanings

1. (informal) A young woman who behaves in a laddish manner, namely being boisterous and loud and drinking to excess.
   • So the rise in drinking seems to centre on gen X women, or, to give us our proper title, ladettes. 2021 September 22, Zoe Williams, “Generation X are heavy, risky drinkers. Will anything ever persuade us to stop?”, in The Guardian:
   • It could be argued that the rise of the socially conscious model reflects a very 2017 archetype: the “woke” young woman, who looks set to define femininity this decade in the same way that the lager-swilling ladette did in the 90s. It is also symptomatic of a broader cultural “awokening” that has reached the stuffiest institutions; even the royal family has recently relaxed its upper lip. 2017 May 15, Hannah Marriott, “Woke models: how activism became fashion's latest must-have”, in The Guardian, London, page 9:

Forms

Deriveds

ladettish · ladettism

Synonyms

tomboy · geezerbird

Translations (2)

fr garçonne (young woman of masculine manners) · fr garçon manqué (young woman of masculine manners)