bel-esprit
\ bel-es-PREE \,
noun;
1.a person of great wit or intellect.
Quotes:
She was the most hospitable and jovial of old vestals, and had been a beauty in her day, she said… She was a bel esprit , and a dreadful Radical for those days.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray," Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero ," 1847-1848
A man of genius will only write a history, or a romance; moral, or poetical essays; but his performances remain with the language, while the reputation of a bel esprit , like some artificial fires, become suddenly extinct.
-- Isaac D'Israeli, "An Essay on the Manners and Genius of the Literary Character," 1795
Origin:
Bel-esprit entered English from French in the mid-1600s. Esprit can be traced back to the Latin spiritus meaning "spirit."
Dictionary.com
