Belle Époque
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from French Belle Époque (“good epoch”).
Proper noun edit
- (history) A period of European history, extending over several decades until the start of the First World War, characterized by artistic and cultural refinement.
- 1973, Raymond Rudorff, The Belle Époque: Paris in the Nineties, Saturday Review Press, page 240:
- Among these cultured hostesses, a leading figure in the belle époque was the Comtesse de Greffulhe.
- 1994, Jennifer R. Waelti-Walters, Steven C. Hause, editors, Feminisms of the Belle Epoque: A Historical and Literary Anthology, University of Nebraska Press:
- 2008, Ellen Hymowitz, “1900-1918”, in Jill Condra, editor, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing Through World History, Volume 3: 1801 to the Present, Greenwood Press, page 89:
- Spanning the turn of the century and capitalizing on fortunes accumulated before the democratizing notion of income tax existed, the Belle Époque held out a lavish style of life to the relative few who could afford it.
Usage notes edit
- By convention, the period extends from the end of the Franco-Prussian War to the outbreak of World War I: i.e., from 1871—1914.
Translations edit
period of European history
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