{"id":24499,"date":"2026-03-06T20:35:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T20:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24499"},"modified":"2026-03-06T20:35:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T20:35:35","slug":"bons-mots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24499","title":{"rendered":"Bons mots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What connects <strong>bons mots<\/strong> with <strong>mottos<\/strong> and <strong>muttering<\/strong>? Let&#8217;s find out.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/redlipstick\/5471939863\/in\/photolist-9kx85K-2i1SD6G-e6b1QD-LYNT97-2hqsg7X-KB3yj-2pAY3DY-zQhgVK-oi8ASc-b5dhS2-NkyERN-LYCWDB-Pmvwoq-czeF5G-2j5Wbdb-NmVBrH-2mVjgNG-DdkMe-zhNJHB-gvCETu-2nAy9mQ-2iRhbmG-2iwpajs-2nAeXEc-c4dg2C-9gpQAW-hk9myU-2mPETJx-i9NRfc-fqYtVj-8JKriV-5YHbSV-2naoW68-PfRU4B-2dU4Qda-8su8NW-2pCyYUJ-nEehkT-2mhLxpA-cvBxCQ-LWEJAH-KY89qm-nf9via-2nAEjGL-52kCeb-8oNtKB-g8BiPa-2nAnzi7-9kxfQR-9ihpib\" title=\"bon mot test 2 stitch-out\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/5297\/5471939863_967ef77c45_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" alt=\"bon mot test 2 stitch-out\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>A <strong>bon mot<\/strong> [b\u0252n m\u0259\u028a \/ b\u0251n mo\u028a] in English means a clever saying, a phrase or witticism or a witty riposte in dialogue. It comes from French <strong>bon mot<\/strong> [b\u0254\u0303 mo], which means the same thing, or literally &#8220;good word&#8221;. You can also find <strong>bon mot<\/strong> in Dutch, Indonesian and other languages [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/bon_mot#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The word <strong>mot<\/strong> [mo] in French means a word, note, (short) message or the answer to an enigma. It comes from Middle French <em>mot<\/em> (word), from Old French <em>mot<\/em> (word), from Late Latin <em>muttum<\/em> (a mutter, grunt), from <em>mutt\u012bre<\/em> (to mutter, murmur, talk quietly) from <em>mutti\u014d<\/em> (to mutter, murmer), which is of onomatopoeic origin and signifies &#8220;make a mu-noise&#8221; [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/mot#French\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Other French expressions featuring <strong>mot<\/strong> include: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>demi-mot<\/strong> = a hint (&#8220;half-word&#8221;)<\/li>\n<li><strong>fin mot<\/strong> = the real story, the  (whole) truth (&#8220;final word&#8221;)<\/li>\n<li><strong>gros mot<\/strong> = dirty word, swear word (&#8220;coarse \/ rough word&#8221;)<\/li>\n<li><strong>grand mot<\/strong> = a strong word, strong term (&#8220;big-word&#8221;)<\/li>\n<li><strong>demi-mot<\/strong> = a hint (&#8220;half-word&#8221;)<\/li>\n<li><strong>mot d&#8217;esprit<\/strong> = a witticism, bon mot (&#8220;word of spirit \/ wit&#8221;)<\/li>\n<li><strong>dernier mot<\/strong> = last word<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Other words from the same roots possibly include <strong>mot<\/strong> (word) in Catalan, <strong>motto<\/strong> and <strong>mutter<\/strong> in English, <strong>mote<\/strong> (nickname, motto) in Spanish, <strong>Motto<\/strong> (motto, slogan) in German and <strong>motto<\/strong> (philosophy, motto, watchword, byword) in Polish [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/mot#French\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>By the way, the plural of <strong>bon mot<\/strong> in French is <strong>bons mots<\/strong>, but in English it can be <strong>bon mots<\/strong> or <strong>bons mots<\/strong>. What about in other languages?<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- Blog horizontal --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1685480124\"\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What connects bons mots with mottos and muttering? Let&#8217;s find out. A bon mot [b\u0252n m\u0259\u028a \/ b\u0251n mo\u028a] in English means a clever saying, a phrase or witticism or a witty riposte in dialogue. It comes from French bon mot [b\u0254\u0303 mo], which means the same thing, or literally &#8220;good word&#8221;. You can also [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,102,104,107,111,116,584,10,302,15,27,34,39,64,78],"tags":[585,586,164,158,338,138,281,163],"class_list":["post-24499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catalan","category-dutch","category-english","category-etymology","category-french","category-german","category-indonesian-bahasa-indonesia","category-language","category-late-latin","category-latin","category-middle-french","category-old-french","category-polish","category-spanish","category-words-and-phrases","tag-bon-mot","tag-bons-mots","tag-english","tag-etymology","tag-french","tag-language","tag-omniglot","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24499"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24504,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24499\/revisions\/24504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}