Dictionary

soubrette en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /suːˈbɹɛt/

Etymology

Borrowed from French soubrette, from Occitan soubreta (“coy”) (feminine of soubret), from soubra (Provençal sobrar), from Latin superare (“be above”).

Meanings

1. A female attendant or servant, especially one who is cheeky or mischievous, often featuring in theatrical comedies.
   • And then too it was exhilarating to see the baron come sailing in with a pair of soubrettes on his arm—each time a different pair. 1936, Henry Miller, “The Tailor Shop”, in Black Spring, Paris: The Obelisk Press […], →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, 1963, →ISBN, page 98:
   • This version of the fragile, yet touching story accents the romance and courtship of the schoolmaster, properly called Mr. Chipping, and the music hall soubrette he falls in love with while vacationing in Pompeii. 1969, Film Bulletin, volume 38, page 127:
   • The servants in the hall tonight are whitely-wigged black slaves in livery of a certain grade of satin and refinement of lace,– black Major-domos and black Soubrettes. 1997, Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon:
   • At present I have only a soubrette's part, with an apron and pockets, and a ballad; but, as I said before, luck's all in this world, and I have every requisite for being lucky. 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Success”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 77:
   • Greatly mystified, the curate turned to examine another picture, the cryptic title of which was, "The superintendent and the soubrette - our reporter puts a pornographic parson's pot on." In this the superintendent, distinguished by a clerical coat and a Methodistical brand of whisker, was delineated in the act of riotously drinking from a bottle labelled "champagne," having evidently accommodated the soubrette - a lady in extremely abbreviated skirts - with his only glass. 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 129:

Forms

Deriveds

soubrettish

Translations (3)

fi subretti (mischievous female in comedy) · io subreto (mischievous female in comedy) · el σουμπρέτα (mischievous female in comedy)