demi-tasse

See also: demitasse

English

Noun

demi-tasse (plural demi-tasses)

1. Alternative form of demitasse.
   • 1876 July, Henry James, Jr., “The American”, in The Atlantic Monthly: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics, volume XXXVIII, number CCXXV, Boston, Mass.: H[enry] O[scar] Houghton and Company; New York, N.Y.: Hurd and Houghton; Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, chapter IV, page 17, column 2:

     He read old almanacs at the book-stalls on the quays, and he began to frequent another café, where more newspapers were taken and his post-prandial demi-tasse cost him a penny extra, and where he used to con the tattered sheets for curious anecdotes, freaks of nature, and strange coincidences.

   • 1933 January, Maurice J. Valency, “The Art World”, in F[ilippo] Cassola, editor, Atlantica, volume XIV, number 4, New York, N.Y.: F. Cassola, page 175, column 2:

     The lady in this painting obviously is not in the mood for coffee; she looks away from her demi-tasse with disarming absent-mindedness, her expression is wistfully, even painfully contemplative, though somewhat marred by the loss of an eye.

   • 1979, Archibald Rogers, The Monticello Fault, Durham, N.C.: Moore Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 275:

     At four-thirty the diners relinquished their demi-tasses to Carrington and returned to the living room for the afternoon session.

   • 1987, Malcolm W. Greenough, Jr., Dear Lily: A Love Story, Dublin, N.H.: Yankee Books, →ISBN, page 164:

     At another time, we lunched at a café where ladies sat alone at tables smoking cigarettes with their demi-tasses while men in the back of the room sang passionate Italian love songs.

   • 1987, Sheila MacLeod Smith, chapter 1, in The Transplanted, Lewes, Sussex: The Book Guild Ltd, →ISBN, pages 3–4:

     After dinner, they were in the habit of taking their demi-tasses into the drawingroom where green logs, smouldering thinly in the grate, gave ample reason for those damp patches on walls and ceiling, […]

   • 1992, Sybil Downing, Jane Valentine Barker, chapter 11, in Crown of Life: The Story of Mary Roberts Rinehart, Niwot, Colo.: Roberts Rinehart Publishers, →ISBN, page 99:

     Others had gone to the cellar but when the dukes continued to calmly sip their demi-tasses, Mary had decided she would, too.

   • 2005, John Meaney, Resolution (The Nulapeiron Sequence; 3), London: Bantam Press, →ISBN, page 95:

     Frau Volk and Frau Schönherr had abandoned their demi-tasses of espresso and were scanning the crowd of skaters, their faces pinched in cold disapproval.

   • 2008, Barbara P. Parsons, A Blonde in the Works: A Novel, New York, N.Y., Charlottetown, P.E.I.: Bunim & Bannigan, →ISBN, page 24:

     She sipped from the demi-tasse.

French

Etymology

From demi- +‎ tasse, literally “half cup”.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /də.mi.tas/ ~ /də.mi.tɑs/

Noun

demi-tasse f (plural demi-tasses)

1. demitasse (“coffee cup”)
2. demitasse (“serving of coffee in such a cup”)

Descendants

• → English: demitasse

Further reading

• “demi-tasse”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• diastèmes, méditasse