beau monde

Borrowed from French beau monde (literally “beautiful world”).

beau monde (plural beaux mondes)

1. (dated) The fashionable part of society.

   Synonym: beautiful people

   • 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 223:

     ...and I am sure you will permit me to invite a friend or two, for you know I only deal with choice spirits, the élite of the beau monde.

   • 1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 57:

     But the intellectuals one meets are something else again. I didn't behave well with the mental beau monde of Chicago.

   • 1985, Keith Clements, “Carrington”, in Henry Lamb: The Artist and his Friends, Bristol: Redcliffe, →ISBN, section V (Palestine and Poole 1914–1928), page 255:

     After finding the studio in West Kensington, and just before starting Pernel’s portrait, he spent an evening at the Kennedy’s where, he told Carrington excitedly, he met ‘a charming beau-monde blonde . . . who with her brightness and stoutness combined with some languishing glances, succeeded in half-ravishing me’.

   • 2018, David Birmingham, A Concise History of Portugal:

     The beau monde went to the Maria II opera house to see and be seen.

• demimonde

• beau monde seasoning

• IPA^(key): /bo mɔ̃d/

beau monde m (uncountable)

1. beautiful people, smart set, high society

   Synonyms: grand monde, belle société, haute société