Tuesday, July 22, 2008

gamine

gamine \gam-EEN; GAM-een\, noun:

1. A girl who wanders about the streets; an urchin.
2. A playfully mischievous girl or young woman.

And the whole world is whacked out with fear of nuclear doom, except for Claire, a French gamine who is "living her own nightmare" and waking up in lots of strange places.
-- Joe Brown, Washington Post, January 17, 1992
. . .the delectable young gamine employed as a waitress in a Montmartre cafe.
-- Peter Bradshaw, "Jolie good show", The Guardian, October 5, 2001

Gamine comes from the French. A boy who wanders about the street is a gamin.

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