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The Writer's Desk by The Zartorialist |
BELLES-LETTRES
Noun plural (occasionally treated as singular). Mid-17th century.
[French, literally 'fine letters'.]
Studies or writing of a purely literary character, especially essays, criticism, etc.
Originally more widely, literature generally, the humanities.
This rather excited me. I couldn't help but wonder if Lexicolatry could be classed as belles-lettres (in fact, if a lot of blogs could). If that were to be true, that would make me a belletrist, which is a 'devotee or practitioner of belles-lettres'. I've been called a lot of things before, but I've never been called a belletrist (I still haven't, to be honest, although I have been called words starting with the word bell in the past). This wouldn't necessarily be something to shout about of course, as some consider belles-lettres and belletrist to be derogatory terms, perhaps suggesting empty and vacuous twitterings. I, however, rather like them.
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