[Fr. = ‘good saying.’] A clever or witty saying; a witticism, repartee.
1735. King, in Swift’s Lett. (1768), IV. 115. What is he doing with his bons mots?
1781. Cowper, Truth, 307. The Scripture was his jest-book, whence he drew Bon mots to gall the Christian and the Jew.
1824. Byron, Juan, XIII. xcvii. What unexpected woes Await those who have studied their bon mots.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, IV. iv. 151. Come! a bon-mot.
1875. Emerson, Lett. & Soc. Aims, vi. 146. The bon-mots that circulate in Society.
Hence Bon mot-ed v.
1802. Morn. Chron., 4 Nov., 3/1. I flatter myself I have got a pretty little collection of smart things, which one of the Boswellian school would have bon mot-ed into an octavo volume.
