douceur

American  

[doo-sur, doo-sœr] / duˈsɜr, duˈsœr /

noun

plural

douceurs

1. a gratuity; tip.

2. a conciliatory gift or bribe.

3. Archaic. sweetness or agreeableness.

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douceur British  

/ duːˈsɜː, dusœr /

noun

1. a gratuity, tip, or bribe

2. sweetness

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Etymology

Origin of douceur

1350–1400; Middle English < Middle French: sweetness < Late Latin dulcor, with initial syllable reshaped under influence of French doux, douce; see douce, -eur

Example Sentences

Nonetheless, an otherwise rollicking chapter on the Frankfurt Book Fair gradually saddens into an elegy for the douceur de vivre before the Revolution.

From Washington Post • Jun. 3, 2015

The collections ranged from 18th-century douceur de vivre to 20th-century avant-garde, prompting the childless Doucet to observe, "I was successively my grandfather, my father, my son, and my grandson."

From Architectural Digest • Aug. 27, 2014

Thus buttressed by a professional support-group, the bereaved writer projects his or her mask of mourning into the public domain and can expect to be treated with a kind of 19th-century douceur.

From The Guardian • Aug. 19, 2011

They also had probably passed an unquiet night; wherefore? because they were badly provided with beds, and had given them up perhaps to the soldiers for a douceur.

From Pictures of German Life in the XVth XVIth and XVIIth Centuries, Vol. II. by Freytag, Gustav

I returned, armed with sundry five-franc pieces and napoleons; but it was not until the fourth day, when I gave an extra douceur, that I could approach him at all.

From The Mapleson Memoirs, vol I 1848-1888 by Mapleson, James H.