bel esprit
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of bel esprit
First recorded in 1630–40; French: literally, “fine mind, wittiness”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The remnants beyond the threshold were from an estate that belonged to George Bucknam Dorr, a Boston lawyer, philanthropist, trail builder, bel esprit and a founder of Acadia National Park.
From New York Times • Aug. 8, 2014
Il n'y eut jamais une plus belle ame jointe à un plus bel esprit.
From On the Portraits of English Authors on Gardening, with Biographical Notices of Them, 2nd edition, with considerable additions by Felton, Samuel
But this "pretended bel esprit" had socially the touch of genius.
From The Women of the French Salons by Mason, Amelia Ruth Gere
For the bel esprit, so much envied, so much sought after, it is almost as ridiculous to pretend to it, as it is difficult to attain.
From Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 2 by Disraeli, Isaac
She was a goddaughter of old Mary Wortley Montagu: and, like that famous old woman of the last century, made considerable pretensions to be a blue-stocking and a bel esprit.
From Barry Lyndon by Thackeray, William Makepeace
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
