▪ I. ‖ bien, adv.
(bjɛ̃)
The French word for ‘well’; used in certain French phrases:
bien entendu (bjɛ̃nɑ̃tɑ̃dy). [F. entendu, pa. pple. of entendre to hear, understand.] Of course; that goes without saying.
| 1844 Thackeray Barry Lyndon vii. in Fraser's Mag. Apr. 396/1 Burgundy and velvet are the best, bien entendu. 1863 C. Reade Hard Cash I. vi. 190 And I was not penniless, bien entendu. 1904 H. O. Sturgis Belchamber x. 136, I could never call her that to her face, bien entendu. 1927 B. Malinowski Sex & Repression in Savage Society i. ix. 77 First of all—and that has, bien entendu, nothing to do with matriliny—there is no condemnation of sex. |
bien-être (bjɛ̃nɛtr). [Fr. (16th) c.); être to be.] A state of well-being; comfort.
| 1849 Geo. Eliot Let. 26 Oct. in J. W. Cross Life (1884) I. iv. 189, I never enjoyed a more complete bien être in my life than during the last fortnight. 1873 W. James Let. 11 May in R. B. Perry Thought & Char. W.J. (1935) I. 344 Your letter..seemed to reveal a great physical bien être. 1883 C. M. Yonge Stray Pearls I. x. 112 There was an indefinable bliss and bien-être in their very presence. 1946 Wodehouse Joy in Morning i. 3 No inkling of the soup into which I was to be plunged came to mar my perfect bien-être. |
bien pensant (bjɛ̃ pɑ̃sɑ̃), a. [Fr. pensant, pr. pple. of penser to think.] Right-thinking; orthodox, conservative. Also as n.
| 1923 A. Huxley On Margin 113 If you are rich, of good family and bien pensant. 1938 Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Oct. 622/3 A Nationalist rising in Spain, which not only M. Maurras but all the French bien-pensants supported. 1958 Listener 7 Aug. 209/2 The pitiful, hasty funeral from which the local bien-pensants remain away. 1962 N. Mitford Water Beetle 136 In her world, Catholic, royalist, bien pensant. |
▪ II. bien
variant of bein.; obs. f. of buy.