bon vivant
Pluralbon vivants, bons vivants
- 1A man who enjoys life's luxuries, especially fine food and drink, and who moves easily in fashionable society.
A celebrated bon vivant, he was a fixture at the city's finest restaurants and liveliest parties.
The club's dining room was full of bon vivants lingering over brandy and cigars.
Similarhedonist, epicure, epicurean, sybarite, sensualist
Oppositeascetic
Note
French supplied the phrase whole, and literally it means "one who lives well": bon is "good" and vivant is the agent noun of vivre, "to live". English pluralizes it two ways. Bon vivants treats it as a single English noun; bons vivants keeps the French habit of making the adjective agree as well. Bon viveur, its near twin, means the same.
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Origin
Borrowed from French bon vivant, literally “one who lives well”, from bon (“good”) + vivant (“person who is living”), the agent noun of vivre (“to live”).