fantoccini
Definitions
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- noun (noun) Puppets which are made to go through evolutions by means of concealed wires or strings.
- noun (noun) Dramatic representations in which puppets are substituted for human performers.
Examples
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The rhyme was a common street-song which every lad in Milan, the city of puppet-shows, would recognize, and not only did it refer to the puppets as 'fantoccini' instead of marionettes, but the significance of the last two lines, 'Each for himself and the fiend for all,' was rather too pointed to be pleasant.
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He had had no instructor, except 'un pobre Italiano,' who came to La Union with an exhibition of fantoccini, died there of fever, and was buried like a Christian in the Campo Santo adjoining the church: and Paganini removed his hat reverentially, and made the sign of the cross on his swarthy bosom.
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The Governor himself is a puppet, his trusted men of resource and portfolio-holders are the veriest fantoccini; for the Governor's own clerk pulls the strings, frames the foreign policy, conducts, controls, adjusts difficulties, and maintains a right balance between the parties.
The Idler Magazine, Volume III., July 1893 An Illustrated Monthly
Note
'Fantoccini' is Italian in origin, and comes from 'fante,' child.
