bluette

English

Etymology 1

French bluette (literally “little spark”)

Noun

bluette (plural bluettes)

1. (dated) A short but scintillating play or other work.
   • 1878, The Theater: A Monthly Review and Magazine, volume 1, page 60:

     The Fürst Theater, the only theatre now open in Vienna, announced last week for production a bluette entitled, Der Schah von Persien in Wien (The Shah in Vienna).

Etymology 2

blue +‎ -ette

Noun

bluette (plural bluettes)

1. A kind of satinette pigeon.

French

Etymology

From beluette, from Old French belue (“spark”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bly.ɛt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛt

• (file)

Noun

bluette f (plural bluettes)

1. scintilla (small spark)
2. (figurative) trifle (unimportant thing, especially a small, unpretentious book or story)
   • 1999, Anna Gavalda, “Petites pratiques germanopratines”, in Je voudrais que quelqu'un m'attende quelque part, →ISBN:

     Mais gardez vos réflexions pour vous et écoutez-moi car mon petit doigt me dit que cette histoire va vous amuser. Vous adorez les petites bluettes.

     But keep your thoughts to yourself and listen to me, because something tells me you're going to enjoy this. You love frivolous little stories.

Further reading

• “bluette”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Noun

bluette m (invariable)

1. a colour/color between an intense sky blue and an electric blue

Adjective

bluette (invariable)

1. describing such a colour/color