a. [F. spirituel masc., -elle fem.: see SPIRITUAL a.] Of a highly refined character or nature, esp. in conjunction with liveliness or quickness of mind.
The distinction between the masc. and fem. forms has not always been observed in English.
α. >1673. Dryden, Marr. à la Mode, III. i. 35. Do not call it my service, that’s too vulgar; but do my baise mains to the Princess Amalthea; that is Spirituelle!
1738. Mrs. Delany, Life & Corr. (1861), II. 20. She has such a flow of spirits and of wit…; she is by much the most spirituelle creature I ever met with.
1867. Augusta Wilson, Vashti, xvii. To-day there was a spirituelle beauty in the white face that he had never seen before.
1886. Illustr. Lond. News, 9 Jan., 45/1. The expression of her countenance … was spirituelle in a high degree.
1895. Q. Rev., Oct., 467–8. She was as delightful, racy, spirituelle a companion after as before her religious change.
β. 1709. Mrs. Manley, Secret Mem. (1720), III. 120. She was very Beautiful, and more Eveliez and Spirituel than any I had met. Ibid., 146. Gay Conversation of the Modish, most Spirituel.
1831. Lytton, Godolphin, III. xxii. 228. The admired—the cultivated—the spirituel—the splendid Godolphin, sank below the commonest adventurer, the coarsest brawler.
Hence Spirituelly adv.
1825. New Monthly Mag., XV. 367. It tells them some very disagreeable truths, and … tells them so spirituel-ly, that … the castigation … is sport to all the rest of the world.
