belle

See also: Belle, bèlle, Bellé, belle-, and beḷḷẽ

English

Etymology

From French belle (“beautiful”), from Latin bella.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɛl/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

belle (plural belles)

1. An attractive woman.

   In her new dress she felt like the belle of the ball.

2. A fellow gay man.

Translations

beautiful woman

• Belarusian: прыгажу́ня f (pryhažúnja), красу́ня f (krasúnja)
• Bulgarian: краса́вица (bg) f (krasávica)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 美女 (zh) (měinǚ), 美人 (zh) (měirén)

• Czech: kráska (cs) f, krasavice (cs) f
• Esperanto: belulino
• Finnish: kaunotar (fi)
• French: belle (fr) f, beauté (fr) f
• German: Schönheit (de) f, Schöne (de) f
• Japanese: 美人 (ja) (びじん, bijin), 美女 (ja) (びじょ, bijo), 別嬪 (ja) (べっぴん, beppin)

• Macedonian: убавица f (ubavica)
• Polish: piękność (pl) f
• Portuguese: beldade (pt) f, bela (pt) f
• Russian: краса́вица (ru) f (krasávica), красо́тка (ru) f (krasótka)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: лепотица f, љепотица f, лепојка f, љепојка f

  Roman: lepotica (sh) f, ljepotica (sh) f, lepojka f, ljepojka (sh) f

• Slovak: krásavica f, kráska f
• Slovene: lepotica f
• Ukrainian: красу́ня f (krasúnja)

See also

• bad belle
• belle assemblée
• belle dame

• belle laide
• belle passion
• belles-lettres

References

• belle at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Lebel

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

belle

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of bellen

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French

Etymology

From Old French bele, from Latin bella(m), feminine of bellus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɛl/

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophones: bel, belles

Adjective

belle

1. feminine singular of beau

Derived terms

Derived terms

• Belle
• Bellefontaine

Descendants

• English: belle
• English: Belle

Noun

belle f (plural belles)

1. beautiful woman, belle, beauty
2. (Louisiana) girlfriend

Derived terms

• Belle au bois dormant
• faire la belle
• jouer la belle
• se faire la belle

Coordinate terms

(girlfriend):

• beau
• blonde
• femme
• gars
• homme

Further reading

• “belle” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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German

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛlə

Verb

belle

1. inflection of bellen:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. first/third-person singular subjunctive I
   3. singular imperative

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Interlingua

Adjective

belle (comparative plus belle, superlative le plus belle)

1. beautiful

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Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɛl.le/
• Rhymes: -ɛlle
• Hyphenation: bèl‧le

Adjective

belle

1. feminine plural of bello

Noun

belle f

1. plural of bella

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Latin

Etymology

From bellus (“pretty, handsome”)

Adverb

bellē (comparative bellius, superlative bellissimē)

1. well, neatly, perfectly
2. prettily, delightfully

Related terms

• bellus
• bonus

References

• belle in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• belle in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• belle in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• belle in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

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Norman

Pronunciation

• Audio (Jersey)

  (file)

Adjective

belle

1. feminine singular of bieau
2. feminine singular of biau

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Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *bellā, from Proto-Germanic *bellǭ.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbel.le/, [ˈbeɫ.ɫe]

Noun

belle f

1. bell

   bellan hringan

   to ring a bell

   • late 10th century, Ælfric, "St. Benedict, Abbot"

     Se dēofol wearp ānne stān tō þǣre bellan þæt hēo eall tōsprang.

     The Devil threw a rock at the bell so it broke into pieces.

Declension

Declension of belle (weak)

Case	Singular	Plural
nominative	belle	bellan
accusative	bellan	bellan
genitive	bellan	bellena
dative	bellan	bellum

Descendants

• Middle English: belle
  • Scots: bell
  • English: bell
    • → Fiji Hindi: belo
    • → Japanese: ベル (beru)

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Turkish

Verb

belle

1. second-person singular imperative of bellemek