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Saturday June 12, 1999

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chichi \SHEE-shee\ , adjective:
Affectedly trendy.

"Going in gangs to those chichi clubs at Maidenhead."
-- E. Taylor, Game of Hide-&-Seek

"Whether the chichi gender theorists like it or not, sexual duality is a law of nature among all highly evolved life forms."
-- Camille Paglia

"The sort of real delicious Italian country cooking that is a revelation after so much chichi Italian food dished up in London."
-- Daily Telegraph, January 22, 1969

"[Judith] Hope -- who lives in East Hampton, where the Clintons have a lot of chichi friends -- has been getting ink by the barrelful with her regular interviews quoting conversations with the first lady, on subjects ranging from Senate ambitions to summer and post-White House living arrangements."
-- Washington Post, June 4, 1999

From the French word that literally means "curl of false hair"; used figuratively in the phrases faire des chichis, "to have affected manners, to make a fuss"; and gens à chichis, "affected, snobbish people." Sometimes spelled "chi-chi."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for chichi

 

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