coquette

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kɒˈkɛt/ (UK); /koʊˈkɛt/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French coquette,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the feminine of coquet “male flirt”,^[2][3][4][5] a diminutive of coq “cock”,^[3] so called from a likeness to the strutting of a cock.^[3] It is related to coquet.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A woman who tries to win men's admiration for her own vanity (1611).^[7][5]

Semantic evolution

Barnhart dates the noun to 1669 and Etymonline to the 1660s,^[3][4] noting that coquet itself was used of women from the 1610s.^[4] The OED also records a male coquette (1770)^[7] and the name of a genus of crested hummingbirds (1843).^[7][1]

Timeline

• 1611 – a flirtatious woman.^[7][5]
• 1656 – coquetry, earlier “pertness”.^[3]
• 1660s – date given by Etymonline and Barnhart.^[4][3]
• 1743 – as an adjective, coquettish.^[7]
• 1843 – a genus of hummingbirds.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A woman who flirts to win admiration without sincere affection.
2. A small crested hummingbird of the genus Lophornis.

Word family

• coquettish
• coquettishly
• coquettishness
• coquetry

Related words

• coquet
• cock

Usage notes

Random House gives tease and vamp as synonyms.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press