Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Bagatelle |
BagatelleNoun1. A light piece of music for piano. 2. Something of little value or significance. 3. (British) a table game in which short cues are used to knock balls into holes that are guarded by wooden pegs; penalties are incurred if the pegs are knocked over. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "bagatelle" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1615. (references) |
Etymology: Bagatelle \Bag`a*telle"\, noun. [French expression, from Italian bagatella; compare to Prov. Italian bagata trifle, Old French bague, Pr. bagua, bundle. See Bag, noun.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Bagatelle (A). A trifle; a thing of no consideration. "Oh! nothing. A mere bagatelle." In French, "Il dépense tout son argent en bagatelles" means, he squanders his money on trash. "Il ne s'amuse qu' des bagatelles," he finds no pleasure except in frivolities. Bagatelle! as an exclamation, means Nonsense! as "Vous dîtes qu'il me fera un procès. Bagatelle!" (fiddlesticks!) "He considered his wife a bagatelle, to be shut up at pleasure" [i.e. a toy to be put away at pleasure]. - The Depraved Husband. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: BagatelleSynonyms: bar billiards (n), fluff (n), frippery (n), frivolity (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Amusement | Interjection: vive la bagatelle! vogue la galere! |
Billiards, pool, pingpong, pyramids, bagatelle; bowls, skittles, ninepins, kain, American bowls; tenpins, tivoli. | |
Unimportance | Toy, plaything, popgun, paper pellet, gimcrack, gewgaw, bauble, trinket, bagatelle, Rickshaw, knickknack, whim-wham, trifle, " trifles light as air "; yankee notions. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Bagatelle |
| English words defined with "bagatelle": Cockamaroo ♦ Vive. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Bagatelle" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. French (bagatelle, bauble, love, peanut, sex, sexual love, trifle), German (bagatelle, trifle), Italian (bagatelles), Manx (bagatelle). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Bagatelle (2001) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | A little game of bagatelle, between Old Abe the rail splitter & Little Mac the gunboat general. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | The Caille-Schiemer Co. bagatelle machine from above. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| "Bagatelle" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 61.54% of the time. "Bagatelle" is used about 13 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 61.54% | 8 | 124,375 |
| Noun (proper) | 38.46% | 5 | 157,705 |
| Total | 100.00% | 13 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
bagatelle | 48 |
jardins de bagatelle | 5 |
bagatelle de parc | 4 |
jardin de bagatelle | 4 |
bagatelle restaurant | 3 |
bagatelle villa | 2 |
bagatelle shoes | 2 |
bagatelle dublin in summer | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "bagatelle"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | stringël (bauble, bibelot, bijouterie, charm, curio, falderal, frippery, gaud, knick knack, Nick nack, pendant, pennant, rattletrap, trinket), hiçgjë (naught, nought). (various references) | |
Arabic | البغاتيلة لعبة تشبه البليارد, شىء تافه (bauble, bosh, damn, duffer, dust, fluff, frivolity, froth, gewgaw, hog, joke, piffling, small beer, tripe, triviality). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | кратко музикално произведение, моникс, дреболия (detail, doit, fiddlestick, fillip, knack, non essential, nothing, nothingness, pin head, playgame, tittle, toy, trick, trifle, twopence). (various references) | |
Czech | bagatela, malièkost (doit, exiguity, penny, pittance, straw, trifle). (various references) | |
Farsi | چیزجزءی واندک , چیزبیهوده , ناقابل (Incapable, Inconsiderable, Trifle, Trivial). (various references) | |
Finnish | joutava asia (mere nothing, trifle). (various references) | |
French | bagatelle (bauble). (various references) | |
German | bagatelle (trifle), tivolispiel, nichtigkeit (emptiness, inanity, invalidity, nullity, trifle, triviality, vainness, vanity, voidness), Kleinigkeit, die, kleinigkeit (fussiness, little thing, littleness, minor detail, small point, small thing, snack, trifle, trivial matter). (various references) | |
Greek | μηδαμινό τι. (various references) | |
Hebrew | "בר של מ" בכך (insignificant matter, trifle, triviality). (various references) | |
Hungarian | csekélység (jot, paucity, pettiness, trifle, triviality). (various references) | |
Indonesian | soal remeh, soal kecil. (various references) | |
Italian | bagattella (stuff, trifle, truck), bagatella. (various references) | |
Manx | frit (coxcomb, fop, frivol, trifler), bagatelle. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | agatellebay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | bagatela (dab, doit, falderal, fangle, fillip, gewgaw, inch, kickshaw, knick-knack, nick-nack, nothing, ought, picayune, pin-head, rap, rot, rubbish, straw, toy, trifle, trinket). (various references) | |
Russian | безделушка (bauble, bijou, bric-a-brac, doodad, falderal, gadget, gewgaw, kickshaw, knick knack, knickknack, knick-knack, Nick nack, rattletrap, trinket, whatnot), багатель. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | bagatela (bargain, trifle, trinket). (various references) | |
Spanish | bagatela (oddment, trifle, trinket). (various references) | |
Swedish | bagatell (fiddle, fluff, pettiness, pinpoint, small matter, trifle, triviality). (various references) | |
Thai | เกมคล้ายเกมบิลเลีย". (various references) | |
Turkish | bilardo benzeri bir oyun, belirli biçimi olmayan kısa müzik parçası, önemsiz şey (bauble, cypher, iota, knickknack, makeweight, mickey mouse, molehill, nicknack, no big deal, picayune, rush, small beer, stiver, straw, toy, trifle, tuppence, twopence, unessential, unimportant thing). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | невелика музична п'"са, жартівливі вірші, багатель, дрібниця (barley-straw, fillip, minim, non essential, nonsense, nothing, nothingism, nought, trifle, triviality, whim-wham). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | vật không giá trị, vật không đáng giá l bao nhiêu, chuyện nhỏ mọn, chuyện không quan trọng. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | noga, nugaces, nugas. (various references) |
| Italian | 900-Modern | bagatella. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "bagatelle": bagatelles. (additional references) | |
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"Bagatelle" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: baguatelle, Begarelli. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-b-e-e-g-l-l-t" | |
-1 letter: ablegate. | |
-2 letters: eatable, gabelle, galeate, gallate, galleta, gelable, getable, tallage. | |
-3 letters: ablate, allege, ballet, beagle, begall, eaglet, galeae, gallet, gelate, glebae, legate, telega. | |
-4 letters: abate, abele, agate, aglee, aglet, alate, algae, algal, allee, bagel, begat, beget, belga, belle, betel, blate, bleat, eagle, elate, gable, galea, gleba, glebe, gleet, label, legal, tabla, table, telae. | |
-5 letters: abet. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-b-e-e-g-l-l-t" | |
+1 letter: bagatelles. | |
+3 letters: biflagellate. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Translations: Ancient 11. Derivations 12. Anagrams | 13. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
