Lolita

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ləʊˈli.tə/

Definitions

1. A young girl perceived as sexually alluring ; a reference to a famous novel about a controversial relationship
2. A female child or adolescent who is viewed as provocatively attractive ; an allusion to a classic book that explores complex themes
3. A youthful girl with a suggestive appearance or demeanor ; a name used to evoke the story and characters from a notable literary work

Etymology: Vladimir Nabokov gave the word its meaning when he named his 1955 novel after its title character, Dolores "Lolita" Haze. "Dolores" is Spanish for "sorrows," and the diminutive "Lola" (a common Spanish nickname for Dolores) was extended with the Spanish suffix "-ita," which makes a name affectionate or childlike. Nabokov's narrator, Humbert Humbert, uses the nickname to describe a twelve-year-old girl whom he obsesses over, and the book's notoriety turned the name into a word. Within a few years, "Lolita" was being used on its own, in lowercase, for a girl regarded as sexually alluring beyond her years. The word is a proper noun turned common noun, the kind of shift that happens when a famous character's name comes to stand for a type. Its meaning is inseparable from the novel's narrator and his distorted view of the girl, which is why the word carries such a charged and troubling sense today.