belle sabreuse

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French belle (“lovely”) + sabreuse (“swordswoman”), after beau sabreur.

Noun

belle sabreuse (plural belles sabreuses)

1. A gallant swordswoman; a dashing female adventurer.
   • 1896 March, Claxton Wilstach, “The Señorita of the Sword”, in Godey's Magazine, volume CXXXII, number 789, pages 257–260:

     The newspaper accounts show that several attempts were made, and not without success in two or three instances, to deprive la belle sabreuse of the points she had made, and to place her hors de combat.

   • 1998, Luke Jennings, Beauty Story, Hutchinson, page 161:

     Quite sexy, those scars, though, in a belle sabreuse sort of way.

   • 2006, Louise Mushikiwabo with Jack Kramer, Rwanda Means the Universe, St. Martins Press, page 143:

     Exhausted, I canter through postpandrial naps atop a Senegalese camel, and in full beau geste. "En avant, ma belle sabreuse!" shouts Tintin into the teeth of the wind.

See also

• beau sabreur