beau monde

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French beau monde (literally “beautiful world”).

Noun

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’.
- 1992, Edwin Williamson, The Penguin History of Latin America, London, New York: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 304:
  Like the prodigal rastaquouères—those Latin American millionaires who flaunted their wealth in Paris in the hope of gaining entry into the beau monde—writers and intellectuals loved to put on cosmopolitan airs after visiting the French capital—they had left their Hispanic backwaters and could now swim with the tide of modern life.
- 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

demimonde

Derived terms

beau monde seasoning

Translations

fashionable part of society

French: beau monde (fr) m
Georgian: ბომონდი (bomondi)
Russian: бомо́нд (ru) m (bomónd), вы́сший свет m (výsšij svet)

French

Etymology

Literally, “beautiful world”.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /bo mɔ̃d/

Noun

beau monde m (uncountable)

beau monde, beautiful people, smart set, high society
Synonyms: grand monde, belle société, haute société