A person, especially a woman, who flirts playfully or acts romantically interested in others without genuine intention, often for attention or amusement.
From French 'coquette,' the feminine form of 'coquet,' ultimately from 'coque' meaning rooster. The term became fashionable in 17th-century European society to describe women who engaged in flirtation as social performance.
During the Renaissance and Victorian eras, being called a 'coquette' was simultaneously an insult and a form of social status—it meant you had the confidence and power to control romantic attention. The word reveals how societies have always had complex feelings about people (mostly women) who played with attraction as a game.
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