douceur

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French douceur (“sweetness”), from Old French dolçor, dulcur, etc., from Latin dulcōr +‎ -em, from dulcis (“sweet”). Naturalized in Middle English as douceoure, dousour but treated as a French loanword from the 17th century onward. Doublet of dulcour.

Noun

douceur (countable and uncountable, plural douceurs)

1. Sweetness of manner: agreeableness, gentleness.
2. (obsolete) Sweet speech: a compliment.
3. A sweetener: a gift offered to sweeten another's attitude, a tip or bribe.
   • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:

     When Dangerfield put the little roll in his hand, Irons looked suspicious and frightened, and balanced it in his palm, as if he had thoughts of chucking it from him, as though it were literally a satanic douceur. But it is hard to part with money, and Irons, though he still looked cowed and unhappy, put the money into his breeches' pocket, and he made a queer bow […]

4. (UK) A tax break provided as an inducement to sell valuable items (especially art) to public collections rather than on the open market.

Synonyms

• (sweet speech): See Thesaurus:praise
• (sweetener): See gift, gratuity, and Thesaurus:bribe

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "douceur, n." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897.

Dutch

Etymology

From French douceur.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /duˈsøːr/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

douceur m (plural douceurs, diminutive douceurtje n)

1. (generally in the diminutive) douceur, sweetener

   Ik heb als douceurtje bij de deal ook maar een fles goede wijn gegeven. ― I added a bottle of good wine to the deal as a sweetener.

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French dolçor, from Late Latin dulcōrem, from Latin dulcis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /du.sœʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

douceur f (plural douceurs)

1. softness, tenderness
2. sweetness

Derived terms

• en douceur
• plus fait douceur que violence

 

Related terms

• douce
• doux

 

Descendants

• → Dutch: douceur
• → English: douceur

Further reading

• “douceur”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.