CS Knowledge Base

Borrowed from French esprit (“spirit”). Doublet of spirit, spiritus, spirytus, sprite, and spright, possibly also spree.

• IPA^(key): /ɛsˈpɹiː/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Rhymes: -iː

esprit (uncountable)

1. Spirit, enthusiasm.
2. A wit.
3. Liveliness, or active mind and spirit.

• bel esprit
• esprit de corps
• l'esprit de l'escalier

• “esprit”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• Pitres, Presti, Priest, Sprite, pierst, priest, re-tips, respit, retips, ripest, sitrep, sprite, stripe, tripes

Borrowed from French esprit.

• IPA^(key): [ˈɛsprɪt]

esprit m inan

1. esprit

• “esprit”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “esprit”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

Inherited from Middle French esperit, from Old French, borrowed from Latin spiritus through Ecclesiastical Latin and Christian religious texts.

• IPA^(key): /ɛs.pʁi/

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• Audio (Canada (Shawinigan)):

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• Audio (France (Paris)):

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• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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esprit m (plural esprits)

1. immaterial or incorporeal substance
2. disembodied mind; spirit
3. mind (in the wide sense)
4. mind (as principle of thought)
5. specific mind aptitude
6. high mind aptitude
7. deep intention, sense, or purpose (of a text, action, attitude...); philosophy (in figurative sense)
8. (metonymic) human being, as possessing abilities of mind
9. (archaic) volatile fluid, especially alcohol

• ⇒ Mauritian Creole: lespri
• → Czech: esprit
• → English: esprit
• → Polish: spryt
• → Turkish: espri (“humor, joke”)

• “esprit”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

• pétris, pister, prîtes, tripes

esprit m (plural esprits) (Limousin)

1. misspelling of esperit