soubrette

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

• IPA^(key): /suːˈbɹɛt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛt

soubrette (plural soubrettes)

1. A female attendant or servant, especially one who is cheeky or mischievous, often featuring in theatrical comedies.
   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Success”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 77:

     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.

   • 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 129:

     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.

   • 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:

     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.

   • 1969, Film Bulletin, volume 38, page 127:

     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.

   • 1997, Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon:

     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.

Borrowed from Occitan soubreto.

• IPA^(key): /su.bʁɛt/

• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

soubrette f (plural soubrettes)

1. (theater) maid (female servant (role) in a theatrical performance)
2. maid (female servant)

• “soubrette”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

• brouettes, brouettés

Borrowed from French soubrette.

• IPA^(key): /suˈbrɛt/^[1]
• Rhymes: -ɛt

soubrette f (invariable)

1. showgirl