Coquet - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

COQUET (pronounced co-kette), to simulate the arts of lovemaking, generally from motives of personal vanity, to flirt; in a figurative sense, to trifle or dilly-dally with anything. The word is derived from the ' French coqueter, which originally means, " to strut about like a cock-bird," i.e. when it desires to attract the hens. The French substantive coquet, in the sense of " beau " or `` lady-killer," was formerly commonly used in English; but the feminine form, coquette, now practically alone survives, in the sense of a woman who gratifies her vanity by using her powers of attraction in a frivolous or inconstant fashion. Hence " to coquet," the original and more correct form, has come frequently to be written " to coquette." Coquetry (Fr. coquetterie), primarily the art of the coquette, is used figuratively of any dilly-dallying or "'coquetting" and, by transference of idea, of any superficial qualities of attraction in persons or things. " Coquet " is still also occasionally used adjectivally, but the more usual form is " coquettish "; e.g. we speak of a "coquettish manner," or a "coquettish hat." The crested humming-birds of the genus Lophornis are known as coquettes (Fr. coquets).