bonhomie

[bon-uh-mee, bon-uh-mee, baw-naw-mee]

noun

1. frank and simple good-heartedness; a good-natured manner; friendliness; geniality.

bonhomie

/ bɔnɔmi, ˈbɒnəmiː /

noun

1. exuberant friendliness

Other Word Forms

• bonhomous adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of bonhomie¹

First recorded in 1795–1805; from French, equivalent to bonhomme “good-natured man” ( boon ², Homo ) + -ie -y ³

Word History and Origins

Origin of bonhomie¹

C18: from French, from bonhomme good-humoured fellow, from bon good + homme man

Example Sentences

At a dinner on Fifth Avenue where Churchill was the guest of honor, Mitchell, trying to maintain his usual bonhomie, stood up and offered a toast: “To my fellow former millionaires.”

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The former high school hero is still coasting on his charisma and only starting to realize how little he’ll have once he loses his looks and life-of-the-party bonhomie.

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But such information would only have puzzled Trump and complicated the shamrock bonhomie, and Vance — a Roman Catholic convert, after all — beamed in silence from the sofa.

Read more on Salon

With its forced bonhomie, the show is neither informative nor engaging.

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It’s a superlative biodoc fueled by how effortlessly O’Brien radiates the soulful bonhomie we want to imagine courses through all those dedicated to a life in art.

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