Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The part of a European newspaper devoted to light fiction, reviews, and articles of general entertainment.
  • noun An article appearing in such a section.
  • noun A novel published in installments.
  • noun A light, popular work of fiction.
  • noun A short literary essay or sketch.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In French newspapers, a part of one or more pages (the bottom) devoted to light literature or criticism, and generally marked off from the rest of the page by a rule.
  • noun The matter given in the feuilleton, very commonly consisting of part of a serial story.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A part of a French newspaper (usually the bottom of the page), devoted to light literature, criticism, etc.; also, the article or tale itself, thus printed.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun UK A marked off small section of a European newspaper page where usually some light or entertaining article is printed.
  • noun UK A light or entertaining article, usually published in a marked off small section of a European newspaper.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from feuillet, sheet of paper, little leaf, diminutive of feuille, leaf, from Old French foille, from Latin folium; see bhel- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • Listen to the French word feuilleton and to today's quote, below.

    feuilleton - French Word-A-Day 2008

  • Today, learn the French word "feuilleton", and follow a less dramatic "soap" (feuillotte? savonette?) in today's column. feuilleton (fuhy-tohn) noun, masculine serial (program), soap opera

    feuilleton - French Word-A-Day 2008

  • The feuilleton is a genre pioneered in Viennese newspapers that lies somewhere between the New Yorker's "Talk of the Town" and an op-ed.

    Dispatches From a Lost Empire Tess Lewis 2012

  • Clever, philosophical, urbane, trenchant, the feuilleton is an attempt, in Roth's words, to say "true things on half a page."

    Dispatches From a Lost Empire Tess Lewis 2012

  • In fact, for a long time, Bourget rose at 3 a.m. and elaborated anxiously study after study, and sketch after sketch, well satisfied when he sometimes noticed his articles in the theatrical 'feuilleton' of the 'Globe' and the

    The French Immortals Series — Complete Various

  • These, however, were very primitive, given over entirely to purely local brevities, and the prices of potatoes, beets and other commodities, and containing also a "feuilleton" of interest to the farmers and laborers.

    Vanished towers and chimes of Flanders George Wharton Edwards 1904

  • In fact, for a long time, Bourget rose at 3 a.m. and elaborated anxiously study after study, and sketch after sketch, well satisfied when he sometimes noticed his articles in the theatrical 'feuilleton' of the 'Globe' and the 'Parlement', until he finally contributed to the great 'Debats' itself.

    Cosmopolis — Complete Paul Bourget 1893

  • This story, like "Round the World in Eighty Days" was first issued in "feuilleton" by the noted Paris newspaper "Le Temps."

    The Underground City 1877

  • This story, like "Round the World in Eighty Days" was first issued in "feuilleton" by the noted Paris newspaper "Le Temps."

    Off on a Comet 1877

  • "Round the World in Eighty Days" was first issued in "feuilleton" by the noted Paris newspaper "Le Temps."

    Off on a Comet! a Journey through Planetary Space Jules Verne 1866

Comments

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  • "I had been somewhat hard-up lately, and one after the other of my belongings had been taken to my 'Uncle.' I had grown nervous and irritable. A few times I had kept my bed for the day with vertigo. Now and then, when luck had favoured me, I had managed to get five shillings for a feuilleton from some newspaper or other."

    - Knut Hamsun, 'Hunger'.

    July 25, 2009

  • • noun a part of a newspaper or magazine devoted to fiction, criticism, or light literature.

    November 8, 2009

  • (noun) - In French newspapers, or others in which the French custom is followed, a portion of one or more pages marked off at the bottom from the rest of the page and appropriated to light literature, criticism, etc. Adopted from French, from feuillet, a diminutive of feuille, leaf. Feuilletonism, aptitude for writing feuilletons; feuilletonist, a writer of feuilletons.

    --Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1897

    January 16, 2018