Dictionary

zephyret en · NOUN

Etymology

From zephyr + -et, perhaps after German Zephyrette (as in the 1848 quotation).

Meanings

1. (obsolete, poetic) A gentle zephyr; a light breeze.
   • The soft zephyrets that panting die / In soothing murmurs the still vales along […] 1777, [variously attributed to Thomas Burgess and Alexander Schomberg], Bagley; a Descriptive Poem. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] J. and J. Fletcher, […] J. Bew, […], →OCLC, signature B, recto:
   • Ueberhaupt iſt’s beſſer, gar keine Spielordnung zu kennen und zu machen — nicht einmal die meinige — als ſie aͤngſtlich zu halten, und die Zephyretten der Freude durch kuͤnſtliches Geblaͤſe und durch Luftpumpen den kleinen Blumen zuzuſchikken. 1848 [1807], Jean Paul Fr[iedrich] Richter, translated by A[nne] H[olt], “Games of Children”, in Levana; or, The Doctrine of Education. […], London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], →OCLC, 3rd fragment, § 54, page 115:
   • [T]he evening wind was low, / Till it did mount and swell, and awe my whole / Of being with the grandeur of its roll, / Sublimest of creation! and withal, / I could but heed though each one, great or small, / Of the arboreal multitude scarce stirr’d / Its flexile summit, nor might well be heard, / Even as only to some zephyret / Answering in softest whisper, yet, ah! yet, / In one vast brotherhood of grand accord / United, to one influence, as lord, / Subject, and breathing altogether, they / Were thunder,—and to my spirit seem’d to say, / What might not men accomplish, were mankind / Throughout the world but of one goodly mind! 1881 November, Robert Steggall, “In the Forest”, in The New Monthly Magazine, volume 120 (5, New Series), number 719, London: E[dward] W[illiam] Allen, […], →OCLC, page 491:

Forms

Relateds

zephyrette