Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Good-natured; good-hearted; friendly; genial; possessing an affable and approachable disposition; easy to talk to.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From bonhomie, borrowed from French bonhomie; from bonhomme "good-natured man"; from bon "good" + homme "man".

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Examples

  • The chief-inspector was taking his time and had recovered his bonhomous attitude.

    Maigret's Little Joke Simenon, Georges, 1903- 1960

  • I'd made a lot of friends during my stay in New York, the city being crammed with bonhomous lads who one and all extended a welcoming hand to the stranger in their midst.

    Death at the Excelsior And Other Stories 1928

  • You don't necessarily go to a meyhane for great food; a bonhomous atmosphere matters more.

    NYT > Home Page By LIESL SCHILLINGER 2011

  • He was then totally at home as the bonhomous but mountingly indignant Mr Hardcastle in a revival of Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer at the Young Vic in 1972.

    The Guardian World News Michael Billington 2011

  • You don't necessarily go to a meyhane for great food; a bonhomous atmosphere matters more.

    NYT > Global Home By LIESL SCHILLINGER 2011

  • I was out drinking last night at a bonhomous speakeasy with a pair of blog legends with another blog legend behind the bar and thus unable to attend Diana Vishneva's Odette-Odile at ABT.

    the latest from teenvogue.com 2010

  • — it takes tremendous heart and a heckuva lot of guts to stand in front of an audience even one comprised of fellow love-festing backslappers with plastered smiles on their wine-tasting bonhomous faces…yes, Om, I AM making fun of you and talk about rewarding people whose contributions to greater society could lead to a more harmonious existence.

    Skype CEO for Nobel Prize? 2005

  • Still, she didn't feel as bonhomous as she knew she ought at an anniversary party, and as the guests of honour took an overlarge knife in their clasped hands and began to assail a cake whose icing was decorated with roses, ivy, twined hearts and the words Happy Twenty-fifth, Malcolm and Frances, Barbara surreptitiously stole glances round the crowd to see if anyone besides herself was giving more attention to his wristwatch than to the waning moments of the celebration.

    A Traitor to Memory George, Elizabeth 2001

  • O’Hara, surprised by the bonhomous nature of this greeting, for his cousin, so far as he knew, was not well acquainted with this particular member of their club and did not much like what he knew of him, waited for Firman’s reply.

    The Dancing Druids Mitchell, Gladys, 1901- 1948

Comments

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  • "Both he and Marion wrote-ever such bonhomous letters."-Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook

    February 9, 2008

  • A pleasant and affable disposition; geniality.

    February 9, 2008