Thursday, June 14, 2012

manqué



manqué [mɑŋˈkeɪ] a. also manquée

1.) After its noun: that might have been but is not, that has missed being.
2.) In other uses: defective, spoilt, missing, lacking, etc. (O.E.D. 2nd Ed.).

Etymology: French, past participle. of manquer to miss, be lacking.

"Herbert Pratt was there for a month, and I saw him tolerably often; he used to talk to me about Spain, and the East, about Tripoli, Persia, Damascus; till it seemed to me that life would be manquée altogether if one shouldn't have some of that knowledge" (Notebooks, Henry James, 1947).


(Portrait of Henry James, John Singer Sargent, 1913)


7 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

You've been manqué for quite a while, my lad. I hope you'll soon be back more regularly in the blogosphere!

Bibi said...

Yep yep, Coalbrookdale. We didn't spend much time there, but it was still pretty impressive. Ah, I'm sorry you couldn't visit >< Maybe next time you're in the UK.

How are you? You should e-mail meeee!

Glad you're back with the words. Bloggers don't like change *shivers* Brr, change... It's icky.

Unknown said...

Good to have you back.

This word means pretty much the same thing in French. Had no idea it was an accepted English word until now.

D4 said...

Mmm, are you back? Anyway, I like this one. I fear I'll forget how to spell it though.

Michael Westside said...

1.) After its noun: that might have been but is not, that has missed being.

That must be the sweetest line i've read all day

MRanthrope said...

Debra beat me to it with the manque tie in. drats.

Meri said...

I've always loved this word but never been very confident using it. It sounds very chic though!

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