‖ idée
(ide)
The French word for ‘idea’ used in certain French phrases, as:
idée fixe (ide fiks): a fixed idea (see fixed ppl. a. 2), an obsession.
| 1836 H. Greville Diary 20 Feb. (1883) 88 The King..has some idée fixe about marrying the Duke of Orleans. 1877 L. W. M. Lockhart Mine is Thine (1878) I. vii, At all events, the attraction of the heart would require to be something out of the common run if it were to subdue this idée fixe. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 245, I am sure he has an idée fixe, Haines said. 1941 Auden New Year Let. ii. 29 Prefer our idées fixes to be True of a fixed Reality. 1953 C. Day Lewis Italian Visit ii. 28 Then fast, faster Drawn by the magnet of his idée fixe, Head down, tail up, he's charging the horizon. 1965 D. Lodge Brit. Mus. is falling Down viii. 133 ‘What's wrong?’ Adam complained. ‘Isn't everyone entitled to his idée fixe?’ 1973 ‘M. Innes’ Appleby's Answer vi. 60 Not an idée fixe of mine... Jack of all trades, you might say. 1974 Times Lit. Suppl. 15 Feb. 162/1 Impatience in the search makes it fatally easy to freeze a hypothesis into a rigid system of idées fixes. |
idée maîtresse (ide mɛtrɛs): a leading idea (cf. master-idea s.v. master n.1 26 b).
| 1939 Times Lit. Suppl. 16 Dec. 729/1 Mystified by M. Romains's apparent reluctance to confide his idée maîtresse, one could not always avoid an injured and carping note of appreciation. 1958 Listener 7 Aug. 193/2 The idée maitresse of his outlook. 1966 Ibid. 6 Oct. 500/2 The leading idea, the idée maîtresse, of the Enlightenment. |
idée mère (ide mɛr): = mother idea (s.v. mother n.1 17 a).
| 1841 Mill Let. Aug. in Works (1963) XIII. 483, I think you should dwell much more..on the idée mêre of..the article. 1863 ― Utilitarianism v. 69 The idée mère, the primitive element, in the formation of the notion of justice, was conformity to law. 1908 H. James Awkward Age Preface p. viii, They especially emphasise that truth of the vanity of the a priori test of what an idée-mère may have to give. 1916 G. Saintsbury Peace of Augustans i. 5 Dryden..had too much of the divine freedom and variety of poetry in him to follow up the idées mères of this couplet. 1931 R. Fry Lett. (1972) II. 653 It's a remarkable book even if it's hypothetical and he may have got an idée mère. |
idée re{cced}ue (ide rəsy): a generally accepted notion or opinion (cf. received ppl. a. 1).
| 1937 E. Bowen in New Statesman 13 Mar. 418/1 He, too, lines up idées re{cced}ues. 1957 E. Wilson Piece of my Mind vii. 105 The foolish old idée re{cced}ue that Greek literature is the real thing and Latin a second-rate imitation. 1964 Listener 9 Jan. 92/2, I sympathized with his dismay that he should be considered right wing, because he did not accept left wing idées re{cced}ues. 1970 Times 23 Feb. 12/1 Your sort of pianist is always..unwilling to accept idées re{cced}ues, even when they come with most authoritative credentials. 1974 Times Lit. Suppl. 22 Mar. 303/2 It sweeps the idées re{cced}ues of sociologists, town planners and other rationalists into the dustbin. |