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Apr 5, 2011 This week's theme Words borrowed from French This week's words soubrette beau geste volte-face entrepot gris-gris Got a website? Free content for your site Words, quotations & more Discuss Feedback RSS/XML A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg beau geste PRONUNCIATION: (bo ZHEST) plural beaux gestes (bo ZHEST) MEANING: noun: A gracious, but often meaningless, gesture. ETYMOLOGY: From French, literally fine gesture. Earliest documented use: 1920. USAGE: "An effective encore doesn't risk becoming an empty beau geste; it is an emotional p.s. somehow relating to the mood of the written program." Peter Dobrin; Applauding the Orchestra for Offering Encores; The Philadelphia Inquirer (Pennsylvania); Jan 15, 2011. Explore "beau geste" in the Visual Thesaurus. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: You only have power over people as long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything, he's no longer in your power -- he's free again. -Alexander Solzhenitsyn, novelist, Nobel laureate (1918-2008)

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