belles-lettres

See also:belles lettres

English

Alternative forms

• belles lettres,belles-letters,belle-lettre

Etymology

Borrowed fromFrenchbelles-lettres(“finewriting”),a parallel construction with thebeaux arts(“fine arts”).Littréconsidered thebelles-lettresto embracegrammar,rhetoric,andpoetry.Sense embracing all of the humanities under the influence ofLatinliterae humaniores.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):/ˌbɛlˈlɛtɹ(ə)/

Noun

belles-lettres(uncountable)

1. (obsolete)Thehumanities.
2. (archaic)Literature,particularlylightcompositionsvaluedfor theiraestheticproperties.

   Synonym:polite literature

   • a.1854,Henry Reed,Lectures on English Literature,1878edition, page34:

     That vapid, half naturalized term ‘belles-lettres,’ which has had some currency as a substitute for the term ‘literature.’

3. (archaic)Literarystudies,particularlyliteraryaesthetics.

Derived terms

• belle-lettrist

Related terms

• belletrist
• belletristic

Translations

humanities—seehumanities

light literary compositions valued for their aesthetic properties

• Arabic:أَدَب(ar)m(ʔadab)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin:Thuần văn học／Thuần văn học(zh)(chúnwénxué),Mỹ văn(zh)(měiwén),Thi lễ／Thi lễ(zh)(shīlǐ)

• Czech:beletrie(cs)f
• Dutch:bellettrie(nl)f
• Esperanto:beletro,beletristiko
• Estonian:ilukirjandus,belletristika
• Finnish:kaunokirjallisuus(fi)
• French:belles-lettres(fr)fpl
• Georgian:ბელეტრისტიკა(beleṭrisṭiḳa)
• German:Belles Lettresfpl,schöne Literaturf,Belletristik(de)f
• Hungarian:szépirodalom(hu)
• Irish:léann liteartham
• Japanese:Thuần văn học(じゅんぶんがく, junbungaku)
• Korean:순문학(sunmunhak)
• Polish:beletrystyka(pl)f,literatura piękna(pl)f
• Portuguese:belas-letrasfpl
• Romanian:beletristică(ro)f
• Russian:худо́жественная литерату́ра(ru)f(xudóžestvennaja literatúra),беллетри́стика(ru)f(belletrístika)
• Swedish:skönlitteratur(sv)c,belletristik(sv)c
• Ukrainian:худо́жня літерату́раf(xudóžnja literatúra),белетри́стика(uk)f(beletrýstyka),кра́снеписьме́нствоn(krásne pysʹménstvo)
• Vietnamese:văn chương(vi)

References

• "belles-lettres,n.",in theOxford English Dictionary,1887.