Pl. beaux esprits. [Fr.; = ‘fine mind, wit, wittiness’; hence ‘a man of culture and talent.’]

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  1.  A clever genius, a brilliant wit.

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1638.  Chillingw., Relig. Prot., I. Pref. § 8. Which I feare is a great scandall to many Beaux Esprits among you.

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1721.  Amherst, Terræ Filius, xxv. 129. The finest geniuses and beaux esprits of the university.

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1732.  Caledonian Mercury, 6 Jan., 3/1.

        With Caution, Reader, mark my Tale:
  Int’s Scope alone you’ll find all
The Subject of our Beaux Esprits,
  Of Toland and of Tindal.

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1801.  Mar. Edgeworth, Belinda, I. lii. 44. The world thought me a beauty and a bel esprit. Ibid. (1813), Patron., I. xiv. 228. One could hand her verses about, and get her forward in the bel-esprit line.

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1823.  Morning Chron., 17 Nov., 3/3.

        Flora’s much overblown,
Bel-esprit Lydia’s grown.

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  2.  Wit, wittiness. (Hardly in Eng. use.)

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1860.  Adler, Fauriel’s Prov. Poetry, xviii. 401. The mannered subtilties of a vitiated taste and of bel-esprit.

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