cicisbeo

plural cicisbeos · plural cicisbei · alternative cicisbee · alternative sigisbeo

1. historicalA man who escorts a married woman to social functions, especially in 18th-century Italy; a married woman's lover.

   He accuses the women of having cicisbei, the girls of having lovers.

   1962, WH Auden; Elizabeth Mayer, translating JW Goethe, Italian Journey, Penguin, published 1970, page 452

   3 more examples

   My old Cicisbee says it would do: & he is (or was poor fellow!) a famous Scholar.

   1784 December 7, Hester Thrale Piozzi, Thraliana

   The office of Cicisbeo is however an intolerably expensive one; especially to our countrymen.

   1792, Thomas Holcroft, Anna St. Ives, volume II, 19

   Of course a cicisbeo is a normal enough figure in Alexandrian life, but things are going to become socially very boring for you if you go out with those two so much.

   1957, Lawrence Durrell, Justine