billet doux
- noun
- /bɪˈleɪ du/
:
carta de amor
- Dear Emily: I got your very nice billet-doux.
Examples
-
She carefully tucked the heartfelt billet doux into the envelope before mailing it to her partner.
-
Send her a billet-doux
-
A billet-doux.
-
The Prince and I were made of sterner stuff, and soon afterward I received a discreet royal billet-doux demanding an immediate audience with Rassigart, if I had "any trace of honor."
Fiction book (1997) -
Every week, he would write a romantic billet doux to surprise her with sweet words of love.
-
After reading his billet doux, she felt a rush of emotions and knew he truly cared for her.
Synonyms
56
2.0
A written message that tells someone you have romantic feelings for them
22
2.7
A card given to someone to show love, often on February 14
7
1.0
A private written message sent to one person about personal matters
1
3.5
An honest written message that shows strong feelings
A short private letter often kept secret
How Romantic
56
2.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
billet + doux
The components literally mean 'note' (billet) + 'sweet' (doux), which directly suggests a 'sweet/affectionate note' and thus maps onto 'love letter' — so a learner who knows both constituents could plausibly infer the meaning. However, this is a French loan phrase not fully integrated into English, the constituents (especially 'doux') are uncommon for English B1 learners, and the fixed foreign form reduces predictability without prior exposure.
Etymology
The noun billet doux comes from French: billet means small note and doux means sweet, so it literally means a 'sweet note'. Lovers used to leave these tiny, secret notes to show their feelings, so billet doux now means a 'love letter'.