Thursday, October 21, 2004

Today's OED antedating: "prima donna"

Prima donna, figurative, colloquial, self-centered brat, ex trait stereotypically attached to operatic star (sec 2, first use cited 1936): Book titled More Fables, by George Ade, 1900, p 175: "When she was at Home she would suck Lemons and complain about Draughts and tell why she didn't like the Other Girls' Voices. She began to act like a Prima Donna, and her Mother was encouraged a Lot."