bagatelle
(ˌbægəˈtɛl)
Forms: 7 bagatell, baggatelle, bagatello, 7–8 bagatel, 8– bagatelle.
[a. F. bagatelle, ad. It. bagatella, a dim. form which Diez attaches to Parmesan bagata a little property, prob. from baga: see baggage. With bagatello, cf. -ado suffix 2. Formerly quite naturalized in sense 1, now scarcely so; sense 2 is purely Eng. in origin and use.]
1. A trifle, a thing of no value or importance.
| c 1645 Howell Lett. II. xxi, Your trifles and bagatels are ill bestowed upon me. 1658 J. Robinson Eudoxa i. 4 Every particular thing..even unto the smallest bagatello's. 1659 Gauden Tears Ch. 102 (D.) To please themselves with toyes and bagatelloes. 1679 A. Behn Feigned Court. ii. i, Ah Baggatelles, Seignior, Baggatelles. a 1733 North Exam. ii. v. ¶100 He makes a meer Bagatel of it. 1786 T. Jefferson Writ. 1859 I. 566 As to the satisfaction for slaves carried off, it is a bagatelle. 1872 Baker Nile Trib. iv. 53 The bonâ fide tax is a bagatelle to the amounts squeezed from him by the..soldiery. |
b. A piece of verse or music in a light style.
| 1827 Gent. Mag. XCVII. ii. 618 The best amatory and pastoral bagatelles in our language. 1880 Grove Dict. Mus., Bagatelle, a short piece of pianoforte music in a light style. |
† c. attrib. or as adj. Trifling, trumpery. Obs.
| 1637 Bastwick Litany i. 17 All which they haue..ouerthrowne with their baggatelle invention. |
2. A game played on a table having a semi-circular end at which are nine holes. The balls used are struck from the opposite end of the board with a cue. The name is sometimes applied to a modified form of billiards known also as semi-billiards.
| 1819 P.O. Lond. Direct. 343 Thurston, John..Billiard Table and Bagatelle Manufacturer. 1854 Mayhew Lond. Labour III. 298 They have cards and bagatelle to keep them. |
b. attrib. as bagatelle-ball, bagatelle-board, bagatelle-room.
| 1837 Dickens Pickw. xiv, A bagatelle-board on the first floor. 1854 Mayhew Lond. Labour II. 19 The numbered sockets in a bagatelle-board. 1863 H. Kingsley A. Elliot II. xvii. 235 Austin went on knocking the bagatelle-balls about. |