A.Word.A.Day --billet-doux

A.Word.A.Day

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Jul 10, 2012

This week's theme
Words borrowed from French

This week's words
risque
billet-doux
femme fatale
pudeur
dishabille

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

billet-doux

PRONUNCIATION:

(bil-ay-DOO)

plural billets-doux (bil-ay-DOOZ)

MEANING:

noun: A love letter.

ETYMOLOGY:

From French billet doux (love letter), from billet (note) + doux (sweet). Earliest documented use: 1673.

USAGE:

"Pete Hamill, journalist and novelist, loves his city and this novel is his billet-doux."
Margaret Cannon; New in Crime Fiction; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Dec 9, 2011.

See more usage examples of billet-doux in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Every human being's essential nature is perfect and faultless, but after years of immersion in the world we easily forget our roots and take on a counterfeit nature. -Lao-Tzu, philosopher (6th century BCE)

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