bienséance
English edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from French bienséance.
Noun edit
bienséance (uncountable)
- Propriety, decorum.
- 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter I, in Rob Roy. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 22:
- In the evening it was very different; and, bred in a country where much attention is paid, or was at least then paid, to bienseance, I was desirous to think for Miss Vernon concerning those points of propriety where her experience did not afford her the means of thinking for herself.
French edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
bienséance f (plural bienséances)
- propriety
- Synonym: convenance
- Antonym: inconvenance
Further reading edit
- “bienséance”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.