douce
See also: ďouče
English
editEtymology
editFrom Middle English douce, from Old French dolz, dous, Middle French doux, douce, from Latin dulcis (“sweet”). Doublet of dolce, doux, and dulce.
Pronunciation
editAdjective
editdouce (comparative more douce, superlative most douce)
- (obsolete) Sweet; nice; pleasant.
- (dialect) Serious and quiet; steady, not flighty or casual; sober.
- 1919, Christopher Morley, The Haunted Bookshop[1], New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, →OCLC, page 242:
- The bookseller, douce man, had seen too many eccentric customers to be shocked by the vehemence of his questioner.
- 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 27:
- what would you say of a man with plenty of silver that bided all by his lone and made his own bed and did his own baking when he might have had a wife to make him douce and brave?
- 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial, published 2007, page 145:
- If Fabre, for example, were elected to the Academy tomorrow, you would see his lust for social revolution turning overnight into the most douce and debonair conformity.
- 1996, Alasdair Gray, “The Story of a Recluse”, in Every Short Story 1951-2012, Canongate, published 2012, page 271:
- So what strong lord of misrule can preside in this douce, commercially respectable, late 19th century city where even religious fanaticism reinforces un adventurous mediocrity?
Derived terms
editRelated terms
editFrench
editPronunciation
edit- IPA(key): /dus/
Audio (France, Brétigny-sur-Orge): (file) Audio (France, Mulhouse): (file) - Rhymes: -us
Adjective
editdouce
Anagrams
editMiddle English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editBorrowed from Old French dous, dolz, douce, from Latin dulcem.
Pronunciation
editAdjective
editdouce
Derived terms
editDescendants
editReferences
edit- “dǒuce, adj. & n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-11.
Noun
editdouce
References
edit- “dǒuce, adj. & n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-11.
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Middle French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English doublets
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/uːs
- Rhymes:English/uːs/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English dialectal terms
- English terms with quotations
- French 1-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio links
- Rhymes:French/us
- Rhymes:French/us/1 syllable
- French non-lemma forms
- French adjective forms
- Middle English terms borrowed from Old French
- Middle English terms derived from Old French
- Middle English terms derived from Latin
- Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English adjectives
- Middle English nouns
- Middle English terms with rare senses
- enm:Love
- enm:Taste