bon ton

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French bon ton (literally “good tone”).

Noun

bon ton (uncountable)

  1. (dated) The height of fashion; fashionable society.
    • 1839, The Quarterly Review, Volume 64, p. 555:
      This part of the proposition is very popular, particularly with the higher and middle classes, because it is the fashion, and a mark of bon ton, to enclose one's letter in an envelope, even though, or perhaps because, it subjects it to double postage.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for bon ton in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from French bon ton (literally “good tone”).

Noun

bon ton m

  1. sophistication, fashionability
    • 2007, Amiche per la pelle, Laila Waida.
      Lula è la nostra maestra di bonton; cerca di renderci più sofisticate.
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