Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A person with refined taste, especially one who enjoys superb food and drink.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- A generous liver; a jovial companion.
Wiktionary
- n. a person who enjoys the good things in life, especially good food and drink; a man about town
GNU Webster's 1913
- A good fellow; a jovial companion; a free liver.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a person devoted to refined sensuous enjoyment (especially good food and drink)
Etymologies
- French bon vivant (literally "one who lives well, good ‘liver’ (living person)"), from bon ("good") + vivant ("person who is living"), agent noun of vivre ("to live"). (Wiktionary)
- French : bon, good + vivant, present participle of vivre, to live. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“In this connection he spoke of John Fiske and his contributions to literature, telling of the surprise he felt on first meeting Fiske at Harvard, to see the look of the bon vivant in one in whom the intellectual and the spiritual were so prominent.”
“At Fort Adams, Newport, Rhode Island, he had won a great name as a bon vivant and as an obliging host.”
“The only consistently solid element is the Doctor himself: a solid synthesis of David Tennant's best characteristics & his turn-on-a-dime change of attitude, from carefree bon vivant to hard-edged hero.”
““Even in his school-days, Saint-Hilaire was a bon vivant, but a bon vivant of a rather rare type, a person of tremendous distinction … ””
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bon vivant’.
-
Familiar
Just a list of words
fulminate, unctuous, malediction, lumpenproletariat, descry, surfeit, sententious, supernumerary, unabashed, picayune, obliterate, decry and 109 more...
-
my fab list
blowsabella, aperçu, froideur, salubrious, abject, gallipot, mumchance, wainscot, virago, macerate, lascivious, clandestine and 181 more...
-
Food--and our love for it!
words involving food and enjoying food
refection, gourmand, hedonist, foodie, gustation, gustatory, pescatarian, piscatory, postprandial, abligurition, haslet, epicurean and 5 more...
-
New Words
idiopathic, explicate, expiate, pellucid, exogenous, pelagic, manque, salonniere, pedantic, expatiate, cyclamen, peregrination and 83 more...
-
French words to throw around next ti...
This list is endorsed by the International Brotherhood of Mimes, Jerry Lewis, and the Society for the Propagation of French Stereotypes.
bon mot, bon vivant, boulevardier, accoutrement, ménage à trois, melee, coup de grace, elan, bete noir, agent provocateur, crème de la crème, haut monde and 53 more...
-
English with Tongue
French words and phrases used by English speakers.
objet d'art, nom de plume, petite, bon voyage, avant-garde, faux pas, faux, touché, répondez, s'il vo..., rouge, papier mâché, joie de vivre and 85 more...
-
jaradgiese's Words
paronomasia, ostensible, insouciant, sobriquet, burlesque, insalubrious, apotheosis, hyperbole, connubial, felicity, florid, conurbation and 642 more...
-
To Learn
enervate, redolent, distaff, approbation, arrogate, bonhomie, palliate, calumny, panoply, contumacious, edify, dyspeptic and 188 more...
-
azd's Words
adamantine, abatial, ablate, ablative, abrogate, accretive, acromegaly, acrostic, actinism, actinic, acuity, adduce and 968 more...
-
Nightbloom's List
adumbrate, beatific, blandiloquent, caliginous, champagne, anointed, chatoyant, chiaroscuro, diffuse, dulcet, ebullient, efflorescence and 94 more...
-
Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
-
ADW2
nudnik, temper, intercalate, cleave, scowl, chapfallen, malapropos, disport, annals, paean, paradisiacal, whet and 362 more...
-
Don't Be a LAZY LINGUIST!
Words that remind me to:
Stop speaking with laze.
Exercise my intellect more than my tongue.
Choose Better Company.
This is not the "Ooh, I love the way these words ...splore, inoculate, dysphemism, bruit, mellifluous, winsome, rancor, aplomb, equivocate, palpable, equivocate, licentious and 128 more...
-
lanas's Words
serendipitous, insouciant, charming, sanguine, dear, odd, quaint, small, tremble, blush, flirt, tryst and 248 more...
-
foodies' wordies
ambrosial, bonne bouche, mignardise, larder, vintner, piehole, bon vivant, bon viveur, soupçon
-
Favourite Words
Just a bunch of words I like and wish I used more often in everyday speech.
adroit, soporific, ostensibly, prolific, auspicious, brio, mucilage, bromide, opprobrium, aplomb, invective, recalcitrant and 114 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for bon vivant.

reesetee *flattered*
They must have named the tulip after me too. Aug 19, 2009
chained_bear This word always makes me think of reesetee now. Who is an old Creole bon vivant. Aug 19, 2009