Word To Use Today Except That It's A Bit Horrid: minaudiere.

 This is a moaning kind of a word, but it has an interesting derivation.

This is a minaudière:

illustration by David Ring

and here's another (none of them have handles):

photo by Bongoramsey

It might be used as an evening bag, or as a container for cosmetics.

I've had several during my life and never known it.

I'm really not sure I'll be able to bring myself to use this word today.

Perhaps tomorrow.

Word To Use Today Except That It's A Bit Horrid: minaudière. This looks the kind of word that was coined in the early nineteenth century, but in fact it came into English in the 1930s. In France minaudière used to mean a coquette (a flirt) or a girl with artificial manners. It's the feminine form of minaudier (men can affect fashionable manners, too). Before that mine meant facial expression, a word which probably came from the Breton word min, a muzzle.