bête noire

American  

[beyt nwahr, bet nwar] / ˌbeɪt ˈnwɑr, bɛt ˈnwar /

noun

PLURAL

bêtes noires

1. a person or thing especially disliked or dreaded; bane; bugbear.

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bête noire British  

/ bɛt nwar /

noun

1. a person or thing that one particularly dislikes or dreads

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bête noire Cultural  

1. Something or someone a person views with particular dislike: “The new candidate for governor is the bête noire of all the liberals in the state.” From French, meaning “black beast.”

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bête noire Idioms  

1. A person or thing that is particularly disliked. For example, Calculus was the bête noire of my freshman courses. This phrase, French for “black beast,” entered the English language in the early 1800s. For synonyms, see pain in the neck; thorn in one's flesh.

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Etymology

Origin of bête noire

1835–45; < French: literally, black beast

Example Sentences

Microplastics are the current bete noire and rightly so, but we’re still in the dark about the causal calamity of a past era’s chemical polluting.

From Los Angeles Times

Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch told The Post he knew Boehlert for more than a decade, and called him “one of the great human beings in journalism — just a good-natured dad, sports lover and outdoorsman who also happened to be a relentless pit bull in the public arena in calling out misinformation or shoddy work in the media, whether it was his bête noire, Fox News, or often at mainstream outlets like the New York Times.”

From Washington Post

Gableman’s “interim report” is loaded with unsubstantiated innuendo that the Wisconsin Election Commission, a bête noire of Stop the Steal activists, illegally rigged the election for Biden.

From Slate

Ranchers on a remote eastern Montana prairie near Canada, Sonny, 78, Sam, 61, and Tyrel Obrecht, 31, are ruggedly independent, politically conservative and make their living rearing cattle — those lumbering beasts that are the bête noire of carbon footprint–concerned conservationists.

From New York Times

But the education advocate and former executive director of Tulsa Legacy Charter School spoke truth: that the right-wing’s current bête noire, “critical race theory” — which the legislature claimed to be responding to — means merely the examination of laws and legislation that uphold racism and oppression.

From Washington Post