lorette

English

Etymology

From French lorette.

Noun

lorette (plural lorettes)

1. (dated) A woman of low morals, especially associated with the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette district of Paris.
   • 1925, Stanley John Weyman, “XVIII The Disclosure”, in Queen's Folly:

     Wife or mistress, lorette or lady, there is but one fate for us!

French

Etymology

Named after the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette district of Paris.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɔ.ʁɛt/

Noun

lorette f (plural lorettes)

1. (archaic) loose woman, lorette
   • 1874, Barbey d'Aurevilly, “La Vengeance d'une femme”, in Les Diaboliques:

     En ce temps-là, ses pareilles à Paris, qui ne trouvaient pas assez sérieux le joli nom de « lorettes » que la littérature leur avait donné et qu’a immortalisé Gavarni, se faisaient appeler orientalement des « panthères ».

     In those days, her kind in Paris, considering that the pretty name of ‘lorette’, which literature had given them and which was immortalised by Gavarni, was not serious enough, had started calling themselves ‘panthers’, in the Oriental style.

   • 1958, Simone de Beauvoir, Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée:

     On les approuvait de s’amuser avec des filles de petite condition : lorettes, grisettes, midinettes, cousettes […]

     We gave them permission to amuse themselves with girls of low morals – lorettes, grisettes, shop-girls, seamstresses.

Further reading

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