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 billet-doux closed with the author wishing “great suffering” on the tree’s proponents.

From Washington Times

“Wayward” is a billet-doux to that city, where Spiotta teaches at Syracuse University’s creative writing program.

From Washington Post

Nine years later, Melville assigned himself a far weightier role, as a journalist, in “Two Men in Manhattan,” his billet-doux to New York, complete with a suitably blowsy score.

From The New Yorker

Homicide: Life on the Street was a classy, multi-layered procedural, The Wire was widely regarded as a masterpiece and Treme has won rave reviews for its post-Katrina New Orleans billet-doux.

From The Guardian

Bodinetz's production, jointly presented with English Touring Theatre, is refreshingly rococo – it's almost a novelty to witness a set of Molière characters corresponding through billet-doux rather than by text message.

From The Guardian