belles lettres
Preserved but no longer current.
Polite literature; poetry, and standard literary works which are not scientific or technical: the study or pursuit of such literature. The term — which is French — has given birth to the very ugly words bellettrist and bellettristic.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “belles lettres” mean?
Polite literature; poetry, and standard literary works which are not scientific or technical: the study or pursuit of such literature. The term — which is French — has given birth to the very ugly words bellettrist and bellettristic.
Is “belles lettres” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.