‖ bas bleu Obs.
(bɑːbl{obar})
[French rendering of Eng. blue-stocking, q.v.]
A ‘blue-stocking,’ a literary lady. Hence bas-ˈbleuism.
| ? 1786 H. More Bas bleu Wks. I. 13 Or how Aspasia's parties shone, The first Bas-bleu at Athens known. 1788 H. Walpole Let. 12 July (1961) XXXI. 271 You have gratified my self-love so amply in your ‘Bas Bleu’. 1808 Miss Talbot's Lett. Introd. 15 The appellation which the company that assembled at her [Mrs. Vesey's] house acquired of the Bas bleu. 1812 Dramatic Censor for 1811 360 Lady Bab Blue is a literary woman of fashion, and a vestige of the Bas bleu club. 1821 Byron Juan iv. cxii. (MS. reading), By measuring the intensity of blue; I'll back a a London bas against Peru. 1842 Times 2 Sept. 2/6 The aristocratic bas-bleus are at present very much devoted to the abolition of slavery. 1871 J. C. Young Mem. C.M. Young I. v. 200 They are utterly devoid of pedantry, or Bas-Bleu-ism, or any other ism. |