Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CO-QUET', or CO-QUETTE', n. [Fr. coquet, a beau, a general lover, a cock-boat; coquette, a jilt; from the Welsh or Celtic coegen, a vain saucy wench, a coquet, from coeg, vain; Sp. coqueta; It. civetta, an owl; civettare, to play the wag, to trifle, to coquet; civetteria, coquetry; civettino, a vain young fellow.]

A vain, airy, trifling girl, who endeavors to attract admiration and advances in love, from a desire to gratify vanity, and then rejects her lover; a jilt. The light coquettes in sylphs aloft repair, / Mid sport and flutter in the fields of air. – Pope. Note. In French, coquet is masculine and coquette feminine; but as our language has no such termination for gender, it may be better to write coquet for both sexes, and for distinction prefix male to the word when applied to a man.