A professed admirer of a married woman; a dangler about women.

the recognized male companion, `cavalier servente,' of a married woman. Taddeo describes Lindoro as Isabella's cicisbeo in the recitative before the duet Ai capricci della sorte, then tells Haly in the first act finale that the Turk is becoming one. In the second act he confides to Lindoro (whom he does not recognize) that although Isabella was at one time still in love with her first lover, Lindoro, there is now no cicisbeo who could separate her from her Taddeo. The implication is quite clear, though it is never explicitly stated, that Taddeo is in fact Isabella's husband, and that he may also be a pappataci! The curious and ambiguous role of the cicisbeo in Italian society in the early nineteenth century is discoursed upon at length in Victorien Sardou's play Tosca, in a scene excised from the opera.

a male esco't o' lova' of some married honky chick.

a male escort or luvr of a married cow.

a male escort or lover of a married woman.

a male escort or luvr of a married bint.

In 18th- and 19th-century Italy, the cicisbeo (IPA: ; plural: cicisbei), or Cavalier Servente, was the professed gallant and lover of a married woman, who attended her at public entertainments, to church and other occasions and had privileged access to his mistress. The arrangement is comparable to the Spanish cortejo and, to a lesser degree, to the French petit-maître. The exact etymology of the word is unknown, some evidence suggests it originally meant "in a whisper" Gaite (perhaps an onomatopeic word), some suggests it is an inversion of bel cece DIZIONARIO ETIMOLOGICO ONLINE, "beautiful chick (pea)".