billet-doux

****************************************************************
Introducing WORD SWEEP!, the first board game to feature Merriam-Webster definitions! Enjoy hours of challenging fun. Try it at:
http://www.wordsweep.com 
****************************************************************

The Word of the Day for February 13 is:

billet-doux   \ bill-ee-DOO\   noun
     : a love letter

Example sentence:
     Poor George spent hours laboring over a billet-doux, only to have his girlfriend toss it aside and demand, "Where are my roses?"

Did you know?
     The first recorded use of the French word ?billet doux? (literally, "sweet letter") in an English context occurs in John Dryden's 1673 play _Marriage a-la-Mode_. In the play, Dryden pokes fun at linguistic Francophiles in English society through the comic character Melanthe, who is described by her prospective lover Rodophil as follows: "No lady can be so curious of a new fashion as she is of a new French word; she's the very mint of the nation, and as fast as any bullion comes out of France, coins it immediately into our language." True to form, Melanthe describes Rodophil with the following words: "Let me die, but he's a fine man; he sings and dances en Francais, and writes the billets doux to a miracle." 






You Are Subscribed As: [email protected]
To unsubscribe, change your e-mail address or to subscribe to the html
version of Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day, featuring audio
pronunciations, please visit:

http://www.startsampling.com/sm/wod/changeofaddress.iphtml

(c) 2007 by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated

Merriam-Webster, Inc.
47 Federal Street
P.O. Box 281
Springfield, MA 01102

[1694-IF:AOL--@]413-734-3134[1694-ENDIF:AOL--@]