beaux esprits

American  

[boh zes-pree] / boʊ zɛsˈpri /

Sometimes beaux-esprits

noun

French.

1. plural of bel esprit.

   In an era ironically called the Enlightenment, these young women were discouraged from becoming beaux esprits.

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Etymology

Origin of beaux esprits

First recorded in 1630–40; bel esprit ( def. )

Example Sentences

Fontenelle, Voltaire, Duclos, and Crebillon, who, in their character of beaux esprits, had the entrée of the house, spread everywhere abroad throughout the fashionable world the praises of her beauty, her grace, and her talents.

From International Miscellany of Literature, Art and Science, Vol. 1, No. 3, Oct. 1, 1850 by Various

Little gossip, few flirtations, neither beaux esprits nor bons vivants—what will become of you?

From St. Elmo by Evans, Augusta J. (Augusta Jane)

How frail are human ties, have said the beaux esprits of every age in one epigrammatic fashion or another.

From Gaslight Sonatas by Hurst, Fannie

After comparison with crowds of others, beaux esprits, fine ladies and fashionable scramblers for notoriety, her dignified graceful simplicity rises in one's opinion, and we feel it with more conviction of its superiority.

From The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Volume 1 by Hare, Augustus J. C.

Besides these, certain beaux esprits of Prague, among them W. Marsano, a strikingly handsome and charming man, were frequent visitors at our house.

From My Life — Volume 1 by Wagner, Richard