bluette

From French bluette (literally “little spark”).

bluette (plural bluettes)

1. (dated) A short but scintillating play or other work.
   • 1878, The Theater: A Monthly Review and Magazine, volume 1, page 60:

     The Fürst Theater, the only theatre now open in Vienna, announced last week for production a bluette entitled, Der Schah von Persien in Wien (The Shah in Vienna).

From blue +‎ -ette.^[1]

bluette (plural bluettes)

1. (now rare) A kind of satinette pigeon.

bluette (usually uncountable, plural bluettes)

1. Alternative spelling of bluet (“a kind of blue woolen cloth”).
   • 2022 March 17, Vicki Beeby, chapter 4, in A New Start for the Wrens (The Wrens; 1), London: Canelo, →ISBN:

     She had longed for the day they would get rid of the hated bluettes. They made her feel like a workhouse inmate. Wearing a uniform might finally make her feel like she belonged.

   • 2024 August 29, Betty Firth, chapter 5, in A Wartime Christmas in the Dales (Made in Yorkshire; 3), London: Hera Books, →ISBN:

     She was on duty at the ARP shelter on the village green in an hour, which left her just enough time to change into her bluette warden’s uniform, pack up some corned beef sandwiches and make a flask of something warming to keep her going through her shift.

   • 2024 December 19, Justin Smith, “Mill Hill”, in The Birds That Wouldn’t Sing: Remembering the D-Day Wrens, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Open Book Publishers, →ISBN, part I (Overlord Embroidery), chapter 1 (Wrens’ Calling (London, 1942–1944)), page 31:

     Here we were Pro-Wrens, and we were given a bluette overall, a garment we wore for the first few days.

From beluette, from Old French belue (“spark”).

• IPA^(key): /bly.ɛt/

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Rhymes: -ɛt

• Audio:

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bluette f (plural bluettes)

1. scintilla (small spark)
2. (figurative) trifle (unimportant thing, especially a small, unpretentious book or story)
   • 1999, Anna Gavalda, “Petites pratiques germanopratines”, in Je voudrais que quelqu'un m'attende quelque part, →ISBN:

     Mais gardez vos réflexions pour vous et écoutez-moi car mon petit doigt me dit que cette histoire va vous amuser. Vous adorez les petites bluettes.

     But keep your thoughts to yourself and listen to me, because something tells me you're going to enjoy this. You love frivolous little stories.

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

bluette m (invariable)

1. a colour/color between an intense sky blue and an electric blue

bluette (invariable)

1. describing such a colour/color