douceur

American  

[doo-sur, doo-sœr] / duˈsɜr, duˈsœr /

noun

plural

douceurs

1. a gratuity; tip.

2. a conciliatory gift or bribe.

3. Archaic. sweetness or agreeableness.

---

douceur British  

/ duːˈsɜː, dusœr /

noun

1. a gratuity, tip, or bribe

2. sweetness

---

Etymology

Origin of douceur

1350–1400; Middle English < Middle French: sweetness < Late Latin dulcor, with initial syllable reshaped under influence of French doux, douce; see douce, -eur

Example Sentences

Nonetheless, an otherwise rollicking chapter on the Frankfurt Book Fair gradually saddens into an elegy for the douceur de vivre before the Revolution.

From Washington Post • Jun. 3, 2015

The collections ranged from 18th-century douceur de vivre to 20th-century avant-garde, prompting the childless Doucet to observe, "I was successively my grandfather, my father, my son, and my grandson."

From Architectural Digest • Aug. 27, 2014

Thus buttressed by a professional support-group, the bereaved writer projects his or her mask of mourning into the public domain and can expect to be treated with a kind of 19th-century douceur.

From The Guardian • Aug. 19, 2011

I could see that the fellow was just sullen under the too free and easy assumptions of a guest from whom little had been experienced in the way of an occasional douceur.

From The Haunted Pajamas by Elliott, Francis Perry

His words are, “Un jeune homme plein de candeur, de douceur, de modestie, une âme presque mystique et comme attristée lu bruit qu'elle a causé.”

From History of Free Thought in Reference to The Christian Religion by Farrar, Adam Storey