The story
- French · borrowed frombête noire“(figurative) intolerable person”
- English todaybête noire
Unadapted borrowing from French bête noire (“(figurative) intolerable person”, literally “black beast”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
bête noire
Today it means: Someone or something that is unbearable and so particularly avoided or disliked; the bane of someone's existence; an object of aversion; an anathema. Full definition →
French bête noire