Word to the Wise: Gamine
by ETR (05/2/2008)
A "gamine" (gam-EEN) - from the French for a child who wanders the streets - is a playfully mischievous girl or young woman.
Example (as used by Joe Brown in the Washington Post): "And the whole world is whacked out with fear of nuclear doom, except for Claire, a French gamine who is ‘living her own nightmare’ and waking up in lots of strange places."