demimonde

Noun

demimonde (plural demimondes)

1. (chiefly historical (19th-century France)) A class of women maintained by wealthy protectors; female courtesans or prostitutes as a group.
   • A most remarkable instance of this was afforded in the play of Camille by the performance of the supper-scene. The stage in this scene is supposed to represent a supper-room, enlivened by the presence of a party of young Parisians, more gay, indeed, than respectable, but still Parisians, and...1857 May, “The World of New York”, in Putnam’s Monthly Magazine of American Literature, Science, and Art, volume IX, number LIII, New York, N.Y.: Miller & Company, […]; London: Sampson Low, Son &...
   • To give a good and solid education to the gentle sex would tend to double the army of progress, to draw closer the domestic relations, and to annihilate that extra-conjugal society (the demi[-]monde of [Alexandre] Dumas the younger) which is now so very prosperous.1864 July, Edmond About, “Art. VII.—Edmond About on Progress. Le Progrès. Par Edmond About. Paris, 1864.”, in The Westminster Review, American edition, volume LXXXII, number CLXI, New York, N.Y....
2. (broadly) A group having little respect or reputation.
   • the literary demimonde
   • It's fascinating to hear, for example, how an addict and charming scoundrel named Herbert Huncke — the man who became a key emissary from the drug demimonde for Burroughs, Ginsberg and Kerouac — had himself been drawn to heroin by tales of Shanghai opium dens, “posh layouts with cushions on the...2004 June 6, Hal Espen, “Higher and Higher”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
3. (broadly) A member of such a class or group of persons.
   • Those who seek pleasure in a round of dances and fashionable frolic, where the german and the horse-race, the card-table and the drive, are the order of the day, will gather to the sea side and the spa; they will seek Newport, the maelstrom of money; or Long Branch with its broiling sun and its...1869 June, “Summer Recreations”, in W. W. Hall, editor, Hall’s Journal of Health, volume XVI, number VI, New York, N.Y.: W. W. Hall, publisher, […], →OCLC, page 119
   • I was called to see B. J., a demimonde and opium habitue, and found her suffering intensely with pain over the right upper chest, neck and arm, and numbness in the right little finger and one-half of the ring finger. […] Diagnosis—brachialgia following traumatism.1898 February, G. G. Buford, “Brachialgia”, in R. B. Maury et al., editors, The Memphis Lancet, volume I, number 5, Memphis, Tenn.: S. C. Toof & Co., printers, published November 1898, →OCLC, page 277