Friday, November 7, 2014

oeuvre [oe-vruh]

noun
French. the works of a writer, painter, or the like, taken as a whole.
French. any one of the works of a writer, painter, or the like.
Examples:
I am very fond of our body of work together, our oeuvre, even though logging 24-hour days for years on end for a band is not the easiest way to lead a life that could have been very creative in its own right.
Ian Faith, interviewed by Chick Hadrian, "Spinal Tap: The Unauthorized Sequel," Spy, July/August, 1992
And in such moments of meta-ennui, he would diagram a work, or select an object and claim it as part of his oeuvre, under the category of "readymade."
Thomas B. Hess, "To-Do Champ," New York, January 21, 1974
Origin:
Oeuvre comes to English by way of French and can ultimately be traced to the Latin word for "work," opus. It entered English in the late 1800s.

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