ci-devant

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French ci-devant.

Adjective

ci-devant (not comparable)

1. Former, late.
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 262:

     Hastily Beatrice performed both her own and Emily's toilette; for what with fatigue and terror, her companion was almost powerless: still their celerity excited the praise of the ci-devant professor of the fine arts.

   • 1846, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], Lucretia: Or The Children of Night. […], volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC:

     The ci-devant marquis was caught disguised in her apartment. She betrayed for him a good, easy friend of the people who had long loved her, and revenge is sweet.

   • 1847 November 1, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie, Boston, Mass.: William D. Ticknor & Company, →OCLC, (please specify either |part=I or II):

     Much they marvelled to see the wealth of the ci-devant blacksmith

   • 1952, Isaac Asimov, Foundation and Empire (1974 Panther Books Ltd publication), part I: “The General”, chapter 1: ‘Search for Magicians’, page 10, ¶ 4

     The old patrician retreated noiselessly with a slow bow that was part of the ceremonious legacy left by a ci-devant aristocracy of the last century’s better days.

   • 2006, Marsha Keith Schuchard, Why Mrs Blake Cried, Pimlico, published 2007, page 157:

     During art collecting tours in Italy, Townley worked with the eccentric scholar Baron d'Hancarville (ci-devant Pierre Françoise Hughes), a specialist in pornographic art […]

Anagrams

• Vedantic

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /si.d(ə).vɑ̃/

• Audio (France (Brétigny-sur-Orge)):

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• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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• Audio (France (Agen)):

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Adjective

ci-devant

1. (archaic) former, one-time

Related terms

• ci-après
• ci-contre
• ci-dessous
• ci-dessus
• ci-inclus
• ci-joint

Descendants

• → English: ci-devant

Noun

ci-devant m or f by sense (invariable)

1. (historical, French Revolution) former aristocrat

Further reading

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