belles-lettres

See also: belles lettres

English

Alternative forms

• belles lettres, belles-letters, belle-lettre

Etymology

Borrowed from French belles-lettres (“fine writings”), a parallel construction with the beaux arts (“fine arts”). Littré considered the belles-lettres to embrace grammar, rhetoric, and poetry. Sense embracing all of the humanities under the influence of Latin literae humaniores.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌbɛlˈlɛtɹ(ə)/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

belles-lettres (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) The humanities.
2. (archaic) Literature, particularly light compositions valued for their aesthetic properties.

   Synonym: polite literature

   • a. 1854, Henry Reed, Lectures on English Literature, 1878 edition, page 34:

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

3. (archaic) Literary studies, particularly literary aesthetics.

Derived terms

• belle-lettrist

Related terms

• belletrist
• belletristic

Translations

humanities — see humanities

light literary compositions valued for their aesthetic properties

• Arabic: أَدَب (ar) m (ʔadab)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 純文學 / 纯文学 (zh) (chúnwénxué), 美文 (zh) (měiwén), 詩禮 / 诗礼 (zh) (shīlǐ)

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

References

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

French

Etymology

Literally, “fine writings”.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɛl.lɛtʁ/

Noun

belles-lettres f pl (plural only)

1. belles-lettres (light literary compositions valued for their aesthetic properties)

References

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