The Queen of Great Britain and Ireland who reigned from 1702 to 1714.
Queen Anne is dead: a phrase implying stale news (cf. QUEEN 3, quot. 1738). Queen Anne’s bounty: see BOUNTY 5 a. Queen Anne’s free gift: see quot. 1867.
1840. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Ser. I. Acc. New Play. Lord Brougham, it appears, isn’t dead, though Queen Anne is.
1859. Thackeray, Virgin., lxxiii. On which my lady cried petulantly, ‘Oh Lord, Queen Anne’s dead, I suppose.’
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Queen Anne’s Free Gift, a sum of money formerly granted to surgeons annually, in addition to their monthly twopences from each man.
b. attrib. as an epithet of the style of furniture, buildings, etc., characteristic of Queen Anne’s reign, or of things made in this style. Also absol.
1881. A. Lang, Library, 36. What furniture-dealers indifferently call the ‘Queen Anne’ or the ‘Chippendale’ style.
1883. M. Schuyler, in Harper’s Mag., Sept., 560/2. In all Queen Anne buildings the architecture is appliqué. However, to disparage Queen Anne is not to explain its acceptance.
Hence Queen Anneified a., in Queen Anne style; Queen Anneism, employment of, or preference for, a Queen Anne style; Queen Anneist, -ite, one who adopts or favors this style.
a. 1878. Sir G. Scott, Recoll., ix. (1879), 375. The Queen-Anne-ites soon threw off this disguise.
1879. Athenæum, No. 2696. 818/1. Even Queen-Anne-ism should draw the line somewhere.
1887. J. C. Robinson, in Times, 17 Aug., 5/4. All architects, Gothic, classic, and Queen Anneists alike.
1889. J. K. Jerome, Idle Thoughts, 43. ‘Drinking the waters’ sounded fashionable and Queen Anneified.
