grande horizontale

plural grandes horizontales

1. A high-status prostitute; a courtesan.

   For even the grandest of grandes horizontales, respectability was a luxury that remained tantalisingly out of reach.

   2015 December 7, Jane Shilling, The Telegraph

   2 more examples

   The dedicated dancer, moved by some ‘inner vision’ that Martha Graham, for one, saw in her, was now well on the way to becoming a grande horizontale.

   1990, Angela Carter, “Barry Paris: Louise Brooks”, in Shaking a Leg, Vintage, published 2013, page 477

   During at least one of his trips to Paris between 1867 and 1870, Bertie went to visit the grande horizontale La Païva at number 25, Champs Élysées, a magnificent building that has survived to the modern day and now houses a restaurant on its ground floor.

   2014, Stephen Clarke, Dirty Bertie, page 148