bel esprit

American  

[bel es-pree] / bɛl ɛsˈpri /

Sometimes bel-esprit

noun

French.

plural

beaux esprits

1. a person of great wit or intellect.

   He found this charming bel esprit, not among his university colleagues, but in the person of a young widow on the outskirts of town.

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bel esprit British  

/ bɛl ɛspri /

noun

1. a witty or clever person

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Etymology

Origin of bel esprit

First recorded in 1630–40; French: literally, “fine mind, wittiness”

Example Sentences

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

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

Thus it will be seen that the Minister's daughter played her rôle of fine lady and bel esprit very fairly in an atmosphere so unlike the air that fine ladies breathe.

From Phoebe, Junior by Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)

In Cambridge we regard you as a bel esprit, a wit, an Irresponsible, a Parisian Immoralist, tres chic.

From Fanny's First Play by Shaw, Bernard

William Pate, "bel esprit and woollen-draper," as Swift called him, lived opposite the Royal Exchange.

From The Journal to Stella by Swift, Jonathan