Etymology

savoir-vivre

Today it means: Familiarity with the customs of polite society. Full definition →

French savoir-vivre
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The story

  1. French · borrowed fromsavoir-vivre
  2. English todaysavoir-vivre

Borrowed from French savoir-vivre, a nominalization of the verb phrase savoir vivre "to know how to live."

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.