bon mot

See also: bonmot and Bonmot

English

WOTD – 23 July 2017

Etymology

Borrowed from French bon mot (“good word”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bɒn məʊ/, /bɒ̃ məʊ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /bɑn moʊ/

Noun

bon mot (plural bons mots or bon mots)

1. A clever saying, phrase or witticism; often, a witty riposte in dialogue.

   Synonyms: quip, remark, repartee, witticism

   • 1725, “Phileleutherus Lipsiensis” [pseudonym; Richard Bentley], chapter LII, in Remarks upon a Late Discourse of Free-thinking [by Anthony Collins]: In a Letter to N. N. [...] Part the Second, 6th edition, Cambridge: Printed for Cornelius Crownfield, printer to the University, →OCLC, page 64:

     But ſo it is: our Writer has met with a Bon Mot of this Cato’s; which, according to his ſhallow Underſtanding and ſilly Interpretation, he preſages will ever live as a noble Free-thinking Saying.

   • 1768, Mr. Yorick [pseudonym; Laurence Sterne], “The Dwarf. Paris.”, in A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, volume I, London: […] T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, […], →OCLC, page 197:

     ―In England, dear Sir, ſaid I, we ſit all at our eaſe. The old French officer would have ſet me at unity with myſelf, in caſe I had been at variance,—by ſaying it was a bon mot—and as a bon mot is always worth ſomething at Paris, he offered me a pinch of ſnuff.

   • 1814, Henry Kett, “Introduction”, in The Flowers of Wit, or A Choice Collection of Bon Mots, both Antient and Modern; with Biographical and Critical Remarks. [...] In Two Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for Lackington, Allen, and Co., […]; at the Weybridge Press, by S. Hamilton, →OCLC, page xvi:

     And if a few of these bon mots so selected be well known, they possess such acknowledged excellence, that the compiler would be justly censured, were he to deprive his readers of the pleasure of seeing them inserted in a work of this kind.

   • 1858 September, “Sir Nathaniel”, “Readings in Current Literature. By Sir Nathaniel. [Victor] Cousin’s Key to the ‘Grand Cyrus.’ History of the French Academy.”, in William Harrison Ainsworth, editor, The New Monthly Magazine, volume CXIV, number CCCCLIII, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 47:

     M. de Pomponne conjures her not to let Mme. Cornuel's bons mots perish, but to keep a register of them. Saint-Simon describes Mme. Cornuel as a "vieille bourgeoise du Marais," who was "full of bons mots, but of bons mots that are apophthegms."

   • 2012, “Introduction”, in Bob Blaisdell, Odette Blaisdell, editors, The Wit and Wisdom of Oscar Wilde, Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, →ISBN, page viii:

     In the lone novel of his career, The Picture of Dorian Gray, the goading Lord Henry cannot seem to help himself from delivering bon mot after bon mot. Word-play and paradoxical summation was a compulsion for [Oscar] Wilde.

   • 2016, Emo Gotsbachner, “Asserting Interpretive Frames of Political Events: Panel Discussions on Television News”, in Richard Fitzgerald, William Housley, editors, Media, Policy and Interaction, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, pages 56–57:

     Summing up a complex analysis [...] we can say that [Peter] Pilz succeeds in turning Mayr's fierce endeavours of enforcement against himself, and his bonmot about the state of politics during socialist rule becomes widely cited in the next day's press.

Alternative forms

• bonmot
• bon-mot

Translations

clever saying, phrase or witticism

• Czech: bonmot (cs) m
• French: bon mot (fr) m
• Galician: ocorrencia (gl) f
• German: Bonmot (de) n
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bonmot n, bra melding m or f

• Polish: bon mot (pl) m
• Russian: остро́та (ru) f (ostróta), бонмо́ (ru) n (bonmó)
• Thai: คำคม (th) (kam-kom)

See also

• l'esprit de l'escalier
• mot juste

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French bon mot.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɔn ˈmoː/, /bɔ̃ ˈmoː/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

bon mot n (plural bon mots or bons mots)

1. bon mot, witticism

French

Etymology

Literally, “good word”.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɔ̃ mo/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

bon mot m (plural bons mots)

1. witticism

   Synonym: mot d’esprit

Derived terms

• → Dutch: bon mot
• → English: bon mot
• → German: Bonmot
• → Polish: bon mot
• → Russian: бонмо́ (bonmó)

See also

• jeu de mots
• mot juste
• avoir le mot pour rire

Indonesian

Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch bon mot (“bon mot, witticism”), from French bon mot (literally “good word”).

Noun

bon mot (plural bon-bon mot, first-person possessive bon motku, second-person possessive bon motmu, third-person possessive bon motnya)

1. bon mot, witticism

Further reading

• “bon mot” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

Polish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French bon mot.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (standard) /ˈbɔw̃ ˈmɔ/, (regional or dialectal, proscribed) /ˈbɔm ˈmɔ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Syllabification: [please specify syllabification manually]

Noun

bon mot m inan (indeclinable)

1. (literary) bon mot (clever saying, phrase, or witticism; often, a witty riposte in dialogue)

Declension

Declension of bon mot

	singular	plural
nominative	bon mot	bon moty
genitive	bon motu	bon motów
dative	bon motowi	bon motom
accusative	bon mot	bon moty
instrumental	bon motem	bon motami
locative	bon mocie	bon motach
vocative	bon mocie	bon moty

or

Indeclinable.

Further reading

• bon mot in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• bon mot in Polish dictionaries at PWN