oeuvre

oeuvre

See also: Oeuvre, oeuvré, œuvre, Œuvre, and œuvré

English

WOTD – 7 June 2006

Alternative forms

• œuvre

Etymology

From French œuvre, from Latin opera (plural of Latin opus). Doublet of opera, opus, and ure.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɜːvɹə/, /ˈuːvɹə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈəːvɹə/, /ˈuːvɹə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

oeuvre (plural oeuvres)

1. A work of art.
2. (uncountable, collective) The complete body of an artist's work.

   Synonyms: body of work, complete works

   • 1997, Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, Totem Books, Icon Books, →ISBN, page 7:

     Let’s “fictionalize” Foucault’s life by turning it into a biographical account of Foucault and his oeuvre or work.

   • 2006, Michel Foucault, “Madness, the absence of an œuvre.”, in Jean Khalfa, transl.; Jean Khalfa, editor, In History of Madness, Routledge, →ISBN, pages 541–549:

     There, in that pale region, beneath that essential cover, the twin incompatibility of an œuvre and madness is unveiled; it is the blind spot of each one's possibility, and of their mutual exclusion.

   • 2012 April 23, Barbara B. Heyman, “Introduction”, in Samuel Barber: A Thematic Catalogue of the Complete Works, Oxford University Press, →ISBN:

     Although, at the onset of my writing this catalogue, his forty-eight opus numbers suggested a small output, in fact his oeuvre comprised more than 100 published and nearly as many unpublished pieces representative of nearly every musical genre.

Related terms

• hors d'oeuvre
• manoeuvre

Translations

work of art

Belarusian: твор m (tvor) Chinese: Mandarin: 藝術品／艺术品 (zh) (yìshùpǐn) Finnish: teos (fi), taideteos (fi) French: œuvre (fr) f German: Œuvre (de) n, Werk (de) n Hungarian: mű (hu) Italian: opera (it) Norwegian: verk (no) n Polish: dzieło (pl) n, utwór (pl) m Portuguese: obra (pt) f Romansch: (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran) ovra f, (Puter, Vallader) ouvra f Russian: творе́ние (ru) n (tvorénije), труд (ru) m (trud), произведе́ние (ru) n (proizvedénije) Spanish: obra (es) f Swedish: verk (sv) n, arbete (sv) n Ukrainian: твір (uk) m (tvir), труд (uk) m (trud)

complete body of works

Belarusian: тво́рчасць f (tvórčascʹ) Chinese: Cantonese: （作品的）全集 (cyun4 zaap6) Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Danish: forfatterskab n Dutch: oeuvre (nl) n Esperanto: verkaro Finnish: tuotanto (fi) French: œuvres (fr) f pl German: Œuvre (de) n, Gesamtwerk n Hungarian: életmű (hu) Latvian: raža f Norwegian: forfatterskap n Polish: twórczość (pl) f, dorobek (pl) m Romansch: (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran) ovra f, (Puter, Vallader) ouvra f Russian: тво́рчество (ru) n (tvórčestvo), труды́ m pl (trudý) Spanish: obra (es) f, producción (es) f, literatura (es) f Ukrainian: тво́рчість f (tvórčistʹ), труди́ m pl (trudý)

---

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

oeuvre n (plural oeuvres, diminutive oeuvretje n)

1. oeuvre

---

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /œvʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

oeuvre f (plural oeuvres)

1. Nonstandard spelling of œuvre.

Usage notes

• The œ ligature is often replaced in contemporary French with oe (the œ character does not appear on AZERTY keyboards), but this is nonstandard.

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• érouve

---

Middle French

Alternative forms

• œuvre

Etymology

Old French uevre.

Noun

oeuvre m or f (plural oeuvres)

1. work; piece of work