Bon vivant
The French term bon vivant, meaning "one who lives well", refers to a person who enjoys the good things of life. The pseudo-French phrase bon viveur was popular in English in the mid 19th century, modelled on the French term.
"Pain and Champaign" (A gouty man at table with a bon viveur drinking champagne)
The phrase is not derogatory but conveys a sense of overindulgence.[1] In his book, Mind the Gaffe, professor Larry Trask opined that the bon viveur phrase is pretentious.[2]
The type was exemplified by Johnnie Cradock who, with his wife Fanny, wrote a restaurant review column in the Daily Telegraph using Bon viveur as a nom de plume. Other examples include Clement Freud, Keith Floyd, John Mortimer and Michael Winner.[3]
See also
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Look up bon viveur in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
References
- Pocock, David Francis; MacClancy, Jeremy (1998), Understanding Social Anthropology, London: The Athlone Press, p. 210, ISBN 0-485-12140-9
- Trask, R. L. (2003), Mind the Gaffe: the Penguin Guide to Common Errors in English, London: Penguin, ISBN 0-14-051476-7
- Thorne, Tony (2011), The 100 Words That Make the English, Hachette, p. 37–38, ISBN 978-0-349-12103-1
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