Dictionary.com's Word of the Day for Monday November 5, 2001:
gamine \gam-EEN; GAM-een\, noun:
1. A girl who wanders about the streets; an urchin.
2. A playfully mischievous girl or young woman.
And the whole world is whacked out with fear of nuclear doom, except for Claire, a French gamine who is "living her own nightmare" and waking up in lots of strange places.
--Joe Brown, Washington Post, January 17, 1992
Gamine. Really a beautiful word. Had I never come upon this dictionary.com definition, I might have even named my child Gamine, as it has the ring of a fine name, and rhymes nicely with my own. Ah, but I have met Claire now, the French gamine, and thanks to the net, won't make that horrific mistake, which would leave me puzzled, Guy and Marguerite leaning slightly forward in their chairs at that quaint Parisian cafe, giggling, as I wonder aloud where Gamine has gotten to.
