bas bleu
- noun
- /bɑː bleɪˈoʊ/
- Archaic
:
bas bleu
- She was considered something of a bas bleu in her small town for her extensive reading and poetry.
Examples
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The literary club, once mocked as a gathering of bas bleus, became highly respected over time.
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In Victorian England, a bas bleu might be both admired and criticized for her passion for learning.
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She is a well-known bas bleu in literary circles.
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Many admire her as a bas bleu who writes beautifully.
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In Victorian England, a bas bleu was often both admired and criticized for her passion for literature and intellect.
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She was seen as a notable bas bleu in her small town because of her vast knowledge and love of books.
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The literary society gradually recognized her as a prominent bas bleu due to her insightful contributions.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A woman who loves books and ideas, often seen as too serious
How Literary
Surface Forms
Morphology
bas + bleu
This is a French loan literally meaning 'blue stocking' (bas = stocking, bleu = blue), but its English sense 'a woman with literary or intellectual interests; bluestocking' is culturally specific and not derivable from the literal parts. Even a learner who knew the constituent words would not reliably infer the idiomatic, historical meaning, so the expression is non-compositional for B1 learners.
Etymology
The noun bas bleu may come from a story in the 1700s about a man who went to a meeting of writers wearing a plain blue stocking instead of fancy shoes. People began to call the group 'bluestockings', and so bas bleu came to mean 'a woman who loves books and learning'.