billet-doux

[ bil-ey-doo, bil-ee-; French bee-yey-doo ]

noun

, plural bil·lets-doux [bil, -ey-, dooz, bil, -ee-, bee-yey-, doo].

1. a love letter.

billet-doux

/ bijɛdu; ˌbɪlɪˈduː /

noun

1. old-fashioned.
   a love letter

Word History and Origins

Origin of billet-doux¹

1665–75; < French: literally, sweet note. See billet ¹, douce

Word History and Origins

Origin of billet-doux¹

C17: from French, literally: a sweet letter, from billet (see billet ¹) + doux sweet, from Latin dulcis

Example Sentences

The bus ticket or taxi receipt or even billet doux employed as a bookmark - not just the marginalia of an intellectual life but the detritus of the heart.

From BBC

Should the billet doux contain a note of contrition, following an argument?

From BBC

This being an opera by the mature Wagner, that uniting involves something other than people hiding in closets, or wicker baskets, or disguises and mistaken identity, or misleading billets doux.

From The Guardian

My lady was in bed, her fair hair unpowdered and streaming all about her shoulders, her chocolate on a small table at her side and countless billets doux from admirers scattered on the sheet.

From Project Gutenberg

The sorting of the letters was accompanied by such facetious subtleties as “Do we behold a billet doux?” or the murmured misquotation: “He sent a letter to his love.”

From Project Gutenberg