Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A daughter of a Spanish or Portuguese king.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A Spanish or Portuguese princess of the royal blood. See infante.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A title borne by every one of the daughters of the kings of Spain and Portugal, except the eldest.
Etymologies
- From Spanish infanta, Portuguese infanta, feminine of infante. (Wiktionary)
- Spanish and Portuguese, feminine of infante, infante; see infante. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“This is also where you'll find the Saint Jean Baptiste Church where young Louix XIV married the Spanish infanta, Maria-Theresa of Hapsburg.”
The Huffington Post: Karen Schaler: 20 Fabulous French Finds in Bordeaux and Basque Country
“Easier to snare the Hapsburg fox with a morsel like Marguerite than negotiate endlessly over the price of the infanta.”
“Marrying Marguerite would provide him the perfect pretext for releasing the infanta from this pledge.”
“The thought of an infanta little boy, a little girlset adrift by apathy or circumstance left an empty place in my heart.”
“Hiii I love the little infanta , I can't wait to see it for real.”
“The Spanish, meanwhile, have been champing at the bit for quite a while, wanting to invade England either to free it for the Catholics, or to put the Spanish infanta on the throne; doesn't really matter which.”
“The largest landowner in Germany, His Serene Highness also owned a bank, breweries, metallurgical companies, 10 other palaces and castles, and extensive properties in Brazil, inherited from his mother, an infanta of the Portuguese royal family.”
“Meanwhile, the infanta herself being rebuked by her benefactor for this instance of misbehaviour, promised faithfully to keep a stricter guard for the future over her conduct, and applied herself with great assiduity to the studies, in which she was assisted by the Swiss, who gradually lost the freedom of his heart, while she was profiting by his instruction.”
“What they revealed was the child Mona as the infanta from Velázquez, wearing a dress five times larger than she was.”
“For the next day she sent the aforesaid quantity of royal Chitterlings to the good Gargantua, under the conduct of young Niphleseth, infanta of the island.”
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘infanta’.
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The Decemberists for polite everyday ...
opal, dolor, lithe, infanta, vagabond, courtesan, vestry, skein, dram, magenta, camisole, charlemagne and 8 more...
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Dain's Words
rabble, terminus, archaic, atavism, demiurge, waylay, syzygy, jocoserious, quark, entropy, cinnabar, shamble and 912 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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The Decemberists
The Decemberists tend to use a lot of interesting words in their songs.
parapet, wastrel, mescaline, indolent, balustrade, vagabond, sprightly, grapple, gunwale, odalisque, timberline, moribund and 116 more...
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Decemberists Words
parapet, catacomb, wastrel, indolent, balustrade, vagabond, odalisque, moribund, legionnaire, frigidaire, laudanum, fecundity and 29 more...
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Out of Gormenghast
Words from Mervyn Peake's books.
recrudescent, propinquital, circumfusion, roisterer, calid, poissonnier, rôtier, légumier, saucier, cretinous, palliative, spindrift and 48 more...
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cmmnwlth's list
infanta, bananaphone, pastafarian, cremains, noetic, lard, sveltoleum, marmoleum, louce, trifecta, d'or, defector and 29 more...
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Her Majesty
tain, palanquin, infanta, bagman, canasta, arabesque, parapet, maidenhead, bosun, gunwale, quay, ply and 27 more...
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Favorite Words
My favorite words.
alabaster, amaranth, anachronism, aubergine, celadon, celestial, cerulean, coquelicot, heliotrope, incognito, inkling, lachrymose and 28 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for infanta.
ekbergmann "The Infanta" by the Decemberists off of their album Picaresque. Mar 31, 2010
chained_bear Hmm... is there an open italics someplace here? (just askin'.) Jul 25, 2008
johnmperry I had a little nut tree,
Nothing would it bear
But a silver nutmeg,
And a golden pear;
The King of Spain's daughter
Came to visit me,
And all for the sake
Of my little nut tree.
Her dress was made of crimson,
Jet black was her hair,
She asked me for my nut tree
And my golden pear.
I said, "So fair a princess
Never did I see,
I'll give you all the fruit
From my little nut tree.
Children's Nursery Rhyme
(sounds a bit phallic to me) Jul 25, 2008
qroqqa In this case the folk etymology is itself probably a folk etymology. The Elephant and Castle district once housed a smithy belonging to the Cutlers' Company; cutlers used ivory for their knife handles; to indicate this the smithy used a sign of an elephant, which in heraldry is depicted with a castle on its back (an alteration of the howdah); a pub later appeared on the spot and used the elephant and castle sign too; and from this the district was named. There was never an Infanta of Castile in British history, and that story about one is presumably a fanciful invention like those about Port Over Starboard Home or Sir Loin—what the linguist Larry Horn has called etymythology. Jul 25, 2008
johnmperry There is a district of London called "Elephant & Castle", centred on a pub of that name. It is said that this is in fact a corruption of "Infanta de Castile", Jul 25, 2008