| 释义 |
‖ bijou|ˈbiːʒuː|
Pl. bijoux.
[F. bijou (16th c. in Littré): prob. a. Breton bizou, formerly besou ‘ring with a stone’ (cf. Cornish bisou ‘finger-ring’ in 13th c.), f. Bret. biz, bez = Cornish bis, bys, bes, Welsh bys finger. See other conjectures in Diez, Littré, Scheler.]
A jewel, a trinket; a ‘gem’ among works of art. Also attrib. Loosely as adj.: small and elegant, luxurious (applied esp. to houses).
1668Lady Chaworth in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Commission (1889) App. v. 10 Perfumed gloves, fans, and all sorts of delicate bijoux for each lady to take att her pleasure. 1747H. Walpole Let. 5 June (1857) II. 86, I..may retire to a little new farm... This little rural bijou was Mrs. Chevenix's. 1838Macaulay Let. in Trevelyan Life (1881) 269 The bijou of his gallery. 1860Players I. i. 7 The new theatre will be a perfect bijou temple of Thalia. 1865‘Ouida’ Strathmore I. xxi. 311 Her bijou theatre. 1868M. E. Braddon Dead Sea Fr. II. i. 3 Owner of..the bijou house in Park Lane. 1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. iii. xx. 154 The farthing buckles were bijoux. 1878M. Jewry Warne's Model Cookery (Advt.), Warne's Bijou Books are handy for the waistcoat pocket. 1904Society in New Reign iii. 73 The London pied-à-terre consisted..of a bijou residence in Mayfair. 1911A. Bennett Card ii. 34 An apartment so tiny that an auctioneer would have been justified in terming it ‘bijou’. 1952Wodehouse Pigs have Wings i. 14 The Empress lived in a bijou residence not far from the kitchen garden. |