belles lettres
1
9.9
- noun
- /bɛlz ˈlɛtərz/
- Literature
- He was invited by some prominent men of Edinburgh to give a series of public lectures on rhetoric, belles lettres, and jurisprudence.
Examples
-
To acquire this status, science needed to be contrasted precisely with literature, or more specifically the belles-lettres (belletristika).
Academic text (2003) -
Many students at the university study belles lettres to deepen their appreciation for literary aesthetics.
-
Friedrich was prodigiously learned in the belles-lettres.
Academic text (1994) -
I know he meant to give me a few days' notice, but when one is as significant a figure in the field of belles lettres as he, sometimes it's simply impossible to take time for personal matters until the demands of one's career have been met.
Fiction book (1999) -
In 1837, at the age of 30, he became the Smith Professor of Modern Languages and Belles Lettres at Harvard.
Academic text (2011) -
Whereas Friedrich's reading goes well beyond the belles lettres, it has a pronounced unworldly quality.
Academic text (1994) -
Arriving at Illinois College in Jacksonville—where he was "Professor of Belles Lettres, Latin, and Greek" and a popular Sunday school teacher for a decade and a half—
Academic text (2004) -
"The scheme included mathematics and the natural sciences, as well as language, history (ancient and modern), grammar, 'belles lettres' (including poetry and composition generally), rhetoric, and philosophy, which he subdivided into 'ideology,' ethics, the 'law of nature and of nations,' government, and political economy.
Academic text (1990) -
For this success, he received the Thibaud Prize for young physicists from the Académie des Sciences, Belles Lettres et Arts de Lyon, in 1968.
Academic text (2002) -
Hugh Blair, whose Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres (1783) remained the most popular guide to rhetoric throughout the Romantic era, actually reserves the term "apostrophe" to cover only addresses to human beings.
Academic text (2002)
Synonyms
158
3.9
Written works such as novels, poems, and plays that people value for art or ideas
1
9.9
Writings like novels or essays that people value for beautiful language and style
How Artistic
- Literature
440
4.1
- Literature
1
9.9
- Literature
2
6.5
- Literature
351
3.1
- Specialized
522
4.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
belles + lettres
The phrase is a French loan whose constituents literally mean 'beautiful' + 'letters', so there is a partial compositional clue pointing toward 'beautiful writing' or literary material. However, as a specialized, somewhat archaic literary label its conventional meaning ('literary works valued for aesthetic quality') and foreign morphology are not fully predictable for a B1 learner, making the connection only partial.
Etymology
Belles lettres comes from French and literally names belles 'beautiful' and lettres 'letters' or 'writing'. It was used for elegant, beautiful writing, so today belles lettres means 'literary works' admired for their style and beauty rather than for facts or information.