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Word of the Day Archive
Tuesday November 29, 2005

billet-doux \bil-ay-DOO\ , noun;
plural billets-doux \bil-ay-DOO(Z)\:
A love letter or note.

Perhaps she just looked first into the bouquet, to see whether there was a billet-doux hidden among the flowers; but there was no letter.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair

Young lovers in Victorian England, forbidden to express their affection in public and fearful that strict parents would intercept their billets-doux, sent coded messages through the personal columns in newspapers.
-- Susan Adams, "I've got a secret", Forbes, September 20, 1999

In French, billet-doux means "sweet noteí" or "short note" (billet, "note" + doux, "sweet," from Latin dulcis).

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for billet-doux