A quaintrelle is a woman who emphasizes a life of passion expressed through personal style, leisurely pastimes, charm, and cultivation of life’s pleasures. Quaintrelles are not female dandies; rather, they share the same philosophical underpinnings of dandies, developed within feminine nature and styles.
Quaintrelle is often noted as an obscure word, with many spelling variations. The stem origin is coint, a 12th century word applied to things skilfully made, later applied to person of beautiful dress or refined speech. The Pilgrimage of the Lyt of the Manhode, about 1450, contains the line ”It folweth nouht that thouh j be thus kembt and a litel make the queyntrelle that for swich cause j am fair…” By the 18th century, coint became quaint, used to denote elegance. The Middle English Dictionary defines queintelle as "A person of fashion" while the Norfolk Archaeology, Volume 37, defines quaintrelle as a feminine "over-dressed person'. The New English Dictionary on Historical Principals defines quaintrelle as, “a finely-dressed woman.”
There are no universally agreed upon quaintrelles. Possible quaintrelles include Lady Blessington, Marchesa Casati, C. Z. Guest, Coco Chanel, Tamara de Lempicka and Marlene Dietrich.