Mona Lisan

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1. Resembling or characteristic of the Mona Lisa.

   They greet the boys every morning, smiling with Mona Lisan smiles.

   1919 February 26, Baxter Daily Citizen, volume II, number 65, Baxter Springs, Kan.

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   On such occasions Tina Lerner’s smile is inscrutable—thoroughly Mona Lisan.

   1912 October 12, “A Cruel Prima Donna War Averted; Hostilities Aroused in Several Quarters by Berlin Story of Frieda Hempel as Metropolitan’s “Highest-Salaried” Woman Artist, but No Casualties Are Reported—Berlin Concert Season Opens with Dedication of Philharmonie Organ”, in Musical America, volume XVI, number 23, New York, N.Y., page 123

   Many explanatory pages have been written on the meaning of this famous painting, and, provoked by its indefinable charm, its elusive suggestion, many an art student has brought the full power of his critical acumen to the task of finding suitable words for the description of the picture’s strange appeal. Each attempt has failed and each writer has dwelt with peculiar emphasis upon the qualities of the Mona Lisan smile.

   1914 March 20, Frederic J. Haskin, “The Restored Mona Lisa”, in The Evening Star, number 19,532, Washington, D.C., page 10

   Of course the New York man would not say just what anniversary of his birthday he was celebrating. Some long range guesses were ventured by Mr. White’s party, but each guess was met with that Mona Lisan smile that Everyman takes on when he does not care to explain.

   1914 March 26, “Archibald S. White Passes Birthday Here; Telegrams Made Known the Fact, but Discreet Silence Maintained by the Financier”, in Woodland Daily Democrat, Woodland, Calif.

   But always, at the end of their discussions, his wife’s Mona Lisan smile seemed like a red-hot iron ever hovering to brand him with the scarlet letter of opportunism.

   1921, Adele S[teiner] Burleson, Every Politician and His Wife, Philadelphia, Pa.: Dorrance and Company, Inc., page 167

   My dear, if I should say your eyes / Are bright as Rigel in the skies; / If I should say your lustrous hair / Is glorious more than high Altair / And that your simple, happy smile / Is of the Mona Lisan style; / Or that your graceful ruby lips / E’en Trojan Helen’s do eclipse; / And tell you, too—not just to please— / You’re fairer than the Naiades; / Said I such things, by ardor fanned, / I do not think you’d understand.

   1921 January 26, Elmo P. Abbiati, “To a Simple Love”, in New York Tribune, volume LXXX, number 27,100, page 8

   Synonyms: Giocondan