beaux esprits

American  

[boh zes-pree] / boʊ zɛsˈpri /

Sometimes beaux-esprits

noun

French.

1. plural of bel esprit.

   In an era ironically called the Enlightenment, these young women were discouraged from becoming beaux esprits.

---

Etymology

Origin of beaux esprits

First recorded in 1630–40; see origin at bel esprit ( def. )

Example Sentences

M�nage, who was his friend, says he was "un des plus beaux esprits de son temps."

From Aspects and Impressions by Gosse, Edmund

After comparison with crowds of others, beaux esprits, fine ladies and fashionable scramblers for notoriety, her dignified graceful simplicity rises in one's opinion, and we feel it with more conviction of its superiority.

From The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Volume 1 by Hare, Augustus J. C.

Oxenstiern.—Those beaux esprits judged according to their predominant passion. 

From Dialogues of the Dead by Morley, Henry

Algaro`tti, Francesco, a clever Italian author, born at Venice, whom, for his wit, Frederick the Great was attached to and patronised, "one of the first beaux esprits of the age," according to Wilhelmina, Frederick's sister.

From The Nuttall Encyclopædia Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge by Nuttall, P. Austin

The society of beaux esprits which met at the house of Madame de Poplini�re, in the time of Madame de Tencin, was only short-lived, like the good fortune of the lady herself.

From International Weekly Miscellany of Literature, Art, and Science — Volume 1, No. 4, July 22, 1850 by Various