arrière-pensée

American  

[a-ryer-pahn-sey] / a ryɛr pɑ̃ˈseɪ /

noun

French.

plural

arrière-pensées

1. a mental reservation; hidden motive.

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arrière-pensée British  

/ arjɛrpɑ̃se /

noun

1. an unrevealed thought or intention

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Etymology

Origin of arrière-pensée

C19: literally: behind thought

Example Sentences

He spoke now without the slightest arrière-pensée of flattering her, and Sylvia in her sudden burst for self-expression was unconscious of him, save as an opponent in an argument.

From The Bent Twig by Fisher, Dorothy Canfield

And I watched him tip the waiter without the least arrière-pensée on either side.

From Mr. Justice Raffles by Hornung, E. W. (Ernest William)

Emerson uses the word here in the same sense as the French arrière-pensée, a mental reservation.

From Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Turpin, Edna Henry Lee

He possessed a virtue rare among artists, that of gratitude without arrière-pensée.

From Human, All-Too-Human, Part II by Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm

Tintoretto communicated his own savage grandeur, his own unrest, to those whom he depicted; Paolo Veronese charmed without arrière-pensée by the intensity of vitality which with perfect simplicity he preserved in his sitters.

From The Later Works of Titian by Phillips, Claude