beau monde
Appearance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from French beau monde (literally “beautiful world”).
Noun
[edit]beau monde (plural beaux mondes)
- (dated) The fashionable part of society.
- Synonym: beautiful people
- 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 223:
- ...and I am sure you will permit me to invite a friend or two, for you know I only deal with choice spirits, the élite of the beau monde.
- 1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 57:
- But the intellectuals one meets are something else again. I didn't behave well with the mental beau monde of Chicago.
- 1985, Keith Clements, “Carrington”, in Henry Lamb: The Artist and his Friends, Bristol: Redcliffe, →ISBN, section V (Palestine and Poole 1914–1928), page 255:
- After finding the studio in West Kensington, and just before starting Pernel’s portrait, he spent an evening at the Kennedy’s where, he told Carrington excitedly, he met ‘a charming beau-monde blonde . . . who with her brightness and stoutness combined with some languishing glances, succeeded in half-ravishing me’.
- 2018, David Birmingham, A Concise History of Portugal:
- The beau monde went to the Maria II opera house to see and be seen.
Coordinate terms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]fashionable part of society
|
French
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]beau monde m (uncountable)
- beautiful people, smart set, high society
- Synonyms: grand monde, belle société, haute société
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from French
- English terms derived from French
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English multiword terms
- English dated terms
- English terms with quotations
- en:Collectives
- en:People
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French uncountable nouns
- French multiword terms
- French masculine nouns