Belles lettresとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

Borrowed from French belles-lettres (“fine writings”), a parallel construction with the beaux arts (“fine arts”). Littré considered the belles-lettres to embrace grammar, rhetoric, and poetry. Sense embracing all of the humanities under the influence of Latin literae humaniores.

発音

• IPA: /ˌbɛlˈlɛtɹ(ə)/

名詞

belles-lettres (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) The humanities.
2. (archaic) Literature, particularly light compositions valued for their aesthetic properties.

   Synonym: polite literature

   • a. 1854, Henry Reed, Lectures on English Literature, 1878 edition, page 34:

     That vapid, half naturalized term ‘belles-lettres,’ which has had some currency as a substitute for the term ‘literature.’

3. (archaic) Literary studies, particularly literary aesthetics.

派生語

関連する語

参照

• "belles-lettres, n.", in the Oxford English Dictionary, 1887.