mounseer arch.
(maʊnˈsɪə(r))
An antiquated anglicized pronunciation of monsieur, which survived as a vulgarism down to the 19th c., and occasionally appears either in representations of illiterate speech or in derisive allusion to English prejudice against foreigners. (Cf. mossoo.)
| a 1641 Suckling Poems (1648) 10 But the Mounsier was modest, and silence confest. 1755 Gentl. Mag. XXV. 229 Shall I again to sea—and bang Mounseer? 1815 Sporting Mag. XLV. 164 These Mounseers do not trust 'em. 1851 Thackeray Eng. Humourists v. (1853) 236 A hearty, plain-spoken man,..having a proper bourgeois scorn for French frogs, for mounseers, and wooden shoes in general. |