It can also be used relative to a specific role model; a second-rate method actor might be referred to as a "Marlon Brando manqué".
[1] The term derives from the past participle of the French verb manquer (to miss, to fail, to lack).
[5] Arising from the inscription on Plato's door in Ancient Greece, "let no one devoid of geometry enter here",[6] the 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes has been described as typifying a "mathematician manqué".
In the game of roulette the set of numbers from 1 to 18 is described as manque (no accent), meaning that the ball has "failed" to land in one of the higher (19–36) slots.
The slang manky, meaning "inferior" or "dirty", is thought to be linked in some way to manqué, possibly from the Scots word mank[9] (maimed or defective)[10] but maybe via Polari.