Etymology
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belletrist (n.)

also bellettrist, 1816, an awkward contraction of belles-lettres + -ist. Adjective belletristic is recorded from 1821.

Entries linking to belletrist

belles-lettres (n.)
"elegant literature, literature as fine art," 1710, French, literally "fine letters," from belles, plural of belle, fem. of beau "fine, beautiful" (see beau) + lettres, plural of lettre "letter" (see letter (n.)). The literary equivalent of beaux arts; its boundaries never have been exact, and it is "now generally applied (when used at all) to the lighter branches of literature, or the æsthetics of literary study" [OED].
-ist 
word-forming element meaning "one who does or makes," also used to indicate adherence to a certain doctrine or custom, from French -iste and directly from Latin -ista (source also of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian -ista), from Greek agent-noun ending -istes, which is from -is-, ending of the stem of verbs in -izein, + agential suffix -tes.

Variant -ister (as in chorister, barrister) is from Old French -istre, on false analogy of ministre. Variant -ista is from Spanish, popularized in American English 1970s by names of Latin-American revolutionary movements.

updated on November 23, 2014

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Dictionary entries near belletrist

bell-bottoms

bell-boy

belle

Bellerophon

belles-lettres

belletrist

bellhop

bellicose

bellicosity

bellied

belligerence

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