bel-esprit

What we commonly understand in French by "esprit," "bel-esprit," "trait d'esprit," are—ingenious thoughts.

And that father of hers, with his doubtful past and his cruelties, and the bel-esprit her mother, with her doubtful reputation.

Madame de Pompadour joked my companion about her 'bel-esprit', but sometimes she reposed confidence in her.

One evening he took me with him to a literary renion, at which every bel-esprit of the capital was to be present.