belles-lettres

Meanings

1. The humanities.
2. Literature, particularly light compositions valued for their aesthetic properties.
3. Literary studies, particularly literary aesthetics.

Etymology

Borrowed from French belles-lettres (“fine writings”), a parallel construction with the beaux arts (“fine arts”). Littré considered the belles-lettres to embrace grammar, rhetoric, and poetry. Sense embracing all of the humanities under the influence of Latin literae humaniores.