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oeuvre

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Oeuvre, oeuvré, œuvre, Œuvre, and œuvré

English

WOTD – 7 June 2006

Alternative forms

Etymology

From French œuvre, from Old French uevre, from Latin opera (plural of Latin opus), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃ep- (“work”). Doublet of opera, opus, and ure.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈəːvɹə/, /ˈuːvɹə/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈʊːvɹə/, /ˈuːvɹə/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

oeuvre (plural oeuvres)

  1. A work of art, music or literature.
    • 1990 February 22, Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes‎:
      (Calvin) This piece is about the inadequacy of traditional imagery and symbols to convey meaning in today's world. By abandoning representationalism, I'm free to express myself with pure form. Specific interpretation gives way to a more visceral response.
      (Hobbes) I notice your oeuvre is monochromatic.
      (Calvin) Well c'mon, it's just snow.
  2. (uncountable, collective) A substantial or complete corpus of works produced by a artist, composer, or writer.
    Synonyms: body of work, corpus
    the complete oeuvre of Mozart
    • 1997, Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, Totem Books, Icon Books, →ISBN, page 7:
      Let’s “fictionalize” Foucault’s life by turning it into a biographical account of Foucault and his oeuvre or work.
    • 2006, Michel Foucault, “Madness, the absence of an œuvre.”, in Jean Khalfa, transl., edited by Jean Khalfa, In History of Madness, Routledge, →ISBN, pages 541–549:
      There, in that pale region, beneath that essential cover, the twin incompatibility of an œuvre and madness is unveiled; it is the blind spot of each one's possibility, and of their mutual exclusion.
    • 2012 April 23, Barbara B. Heyman, “Introduction”, in Samuel Barber: A Thematic Catalogue of the Complete Works, Oxford University Press, →ISBN:
      Although, at the onset of my writing this catalogue, his forty-eight opus numbers suggested a small output, in fact his oeuvre comprised more than 100 published and nearly as many unpublished pieces representative of nearly every musical genre.

Translations

References

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Dutch

Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nl

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈœːvrə/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -œːvrə

Noun

oeuvre n (plural oeuvres, diminutive oeuvretje n)

  1. oeuvre

French

Pronunciation

Noun

oeuvre f (plural oeuvres)

  1. nonstandard spelling of œuvre

Usage notes

  • The œ ligature is often replaced in contemporary French with oe (the œ character does not appear on AZERTY keyboards), but this is nonstandard.

Further reading

Anagrams

Middle French

Alternative forms

Etymology

Old French uevre.

Noun

oeuvre m or f (plural oeuvres)

  1. work; piece of work

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