How do you pronounce billet doux

In Play: When "love note" is simply too harsh a phrase for the tenderness of emotion involved, it is time to call in today's Good Word: "Wade always included a billet-doux in the bouquets he sent Tiffany Lampe, the light of his life. Billet today means "ticket, receipt" in French but it originally meant "a short note". This billet is not to be confused with the military billet mentioned in the Notes above.

That billet originally referred to the document ordering a building be used to lodge soldiers. It comes from Old French billette , a corruption of bullette , meaning a small bulle , a seal or sealed document.

This word is heard today in the phrase "Papal bull", an official document bearing the seal of the Pope. Doux is the French variant of Latin dulcis "sweet", which also became Spanish dulce and Italian dolce in La Dolce Vita , the movie that brought Federico Fellini to the world's attention. Last edited by Dr. Goodword on Thu Sep 15, pm, edited 1 time in total.

The French I'm sure pronounce it as we would say 'do', don't they? And I have never heard anyone say 'dooze'. Perhaps this is another American development. I could sort of understand it if you said billet as in fish fillet - then the thing has indeed become anglicised, but you say it's still 'beelay' as the French would say it.

So surely 'do' as the French would say 'doux'? So I suppose I could also understand 'doos' in the belief that billet is feminine which it is not , but not 'dooze', surely? What a strange place USA is! So confident was I that I didn't check it before I spoke. And now I see even my Macquarie Australian Dictionary agrees with you. I am sorry for questioning it. The billets-doux Petraeus sent to his paramour-cum-biographer on an unencrypted Gmail account!

He doesn't believe in my zeal for efficiency at Mudros; he thinks my little plan is to work General Ellison into the billet. What were invasions and armies—what were kings and kingdoms—to the slightest wish of the being who had written this billet?

One end of the bar is flattened and pierced with small holes, while at the other a billet of wood is suspended from a chain. Afterwards I hurried to my billet and hastily packed up all my kit, and marched the regiment down to the trenches. In passing through the yard, the leader of the band fell over a billet of wood, and received a momentary hurt from the fall.

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