oeuvre

See also: oeuvré, œuvre, Œuvre, and œuvré

English

WOTD – 7 June 2006

Alternative forms

• œuvre

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] French œuvre, from the (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin opus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɜːvɹə/, /ˈuːvɹə/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

oeuvre (plural oeuvres)

1. A work of art.
2. The complete body of an artist's work.

Quotations

"There, in that pale region, beneath that essential cover, the twin incompatibility of an œuvre and madness is unveiled; it is the blind spot of each one's possibility, and of their mutual exclusion." - Michel Foucault. "Madness, the absence of an œuvre." In History of Madness, edited by Jean Khalfa, 541-549. Routledge, 2006. Original Publication: Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique (Gallimard, 1972) Accessed Here

• 1997, Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 7 (Totem Books, Icon Books; →ISBN

  Let’s “fictionalize” Foucault’s life by turning it into a biographical account of Foucault and his oeuvre or work.

Synonyms

• complete works

Translations

work of art

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 藝術品／艺术品 (zh) (yìshùpǐn)

• Finnish: teos (fi), taideteos (fi)
• French: œuvre (fr) f
• German: Œuvre (de) n
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: opera (it)
• Norwegian: verk (no) n
• Romansch: (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran) ovra f, (Puter, Vallader) ouvra f
• Spanish: obra (es) f
• Swedish: verk (sv) n, arbete (sv) n

complete body of works

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: forfatterskab n
• Dutch: oeuvre (nl) n
• Esperanto: verkaro
• Finnish: tuotanto (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• French: œuvres (fr) f pl
• German: Œuvre (de) n, Gesamtwerk n
• Latvian: raža f
• Romansch: (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran) ovra f, (Puter, Vallader) ouvra f
• Spanish: obra (es) f

See also

• hors d'oeuvre
• manoeuvre
• body of work

---

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

oeuvre n (plural oeuvres, diminutive oeuvretje n)

1. oeuvre

---

French

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

oeuvre f (plural oeuvres)

1. Nonstandard spelling of œuvre.

Usage notes

• The œ ligature is often replaced in contemporary French with oe (the œ character does not appear on AZERTY keyboards), but this is nonstandard.

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• érouve

---

Middle French

Alternative forms

• œuvre

Etymology

(deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French uevre.

Noun

oeuvre m or f (plural oeuvres)

1. work; piece of work