coryphée

From French coryphée, from Latin coryphaeus, from Ancient Greek κορυφαῖος (koruphaîos, “leader”), from κορυφή (koruphḗ, “head”).

• IPA^(key): /kɒɹɪˈfeɪ/

coryphée (plural coryphées)

1. A ballet dancer ranking above a member of the corps de ballet and below a soloist.
   • 1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin 2006, p. 305:

     The sick throw away their crutches and dance like coryphées, the enfeebled strain to lift logs and boulders […].

   • 1866, The Round Table - Volume 4, page 40:

     Go into the wealthiest and gayest quarters of the town and you shall see maidens of fifteen tripping along in scores with their young cheeks bechalked and bedizened in a manner that almost puts to the shame a coryphée of the grand opera.

Borrowed from Latin coryphaeus, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek κορυφαῖος (koruphaîos, “leader”), from κορυφή (koruphḗ, “head”).

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.ʁi.fe/

coryphée m (plural coryphées)

1. (Ancient Greece) leader of the ancient Greek chorus, coryphaeus

• → Dutch: coryfee
• → English: coryphée

• “coryphée” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).