belle

Etymology

It is borrowed from French belle (“beautiful”), the feminine of beau used as a noun,^[2][3][4][5] from Old French bele, feminine of bel (“fine, handsome”),^[6][2][7] which continues Latin bella, the feminine of bellus (“pretty, fair”).^[6][8][9] Etymonline, following de Vaan, traces the Latin adjective to a diminutive Proto-Indo-European *dwenelo- of the root *deu-, which also gave bonus (“good”), and adds de Vaan's remark that the PIE etymology is disputed; the diminutive meaning explains why bellus was first used of women and children.^[6] The same French and Latin adjective is behind beau and embellish.^[3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A beautiful woman, especially one who dresses to attract admiration, or the most admired woman of a place: a1640, in John Fletcher's Beggars Bush.^[11][12] Barnhart dates the play passage to 1622, Etymonline gives the 1620s and Merriam-Webster about 1640.^[2][6][4]

Semantic evolution

Pepys used belle in 1668 as an adjective meaning pretty, a use that did not last.^[11][12] Johnson (1755) defined the noun simply as a young lady, quoting Pope's Rape of the Lock: "Could make a gentle belle reject a lord?"^[13] French phrases containing the word were also taken into English: for a brilliant gathering (1700), for love (1711), for a fair lady (1768) and for a woman who is attractive though plain (1908).^[11] The phrases belle of the ball and Southern belle are recorded in modern dictionaries,^[5][4][8] and since 1932 American gay slang used belle for a good-looking young homosexual man.^[14]

Timeline

• 1622 – Barnhart's date for Fletcher's Beggars Bush.^[2]
• a1640 – a beautiful, admired woman.^[11]
• 1668 – (obsolete) as an adjective, pretty.^[11]
• 1700 – first of several French phrases with belle used in English.^[11]
• 1932 – (US, gay slang) a good-looking young homosexual man.^[14]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A beautiful and popular girl or woman.
2. The most admired woman or girl at a place or gathering, especially in the belle of the ball.

Related words

• beau
• beauty
• embellish
• belladonna
• bonus

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com