Word of the day

WORD: bete noire bet-NWAHR (noun)

: Something or someone particularly detested or
avoided

SYNONYMS: * bugbear
* persona non grata
* anathema

WORD WISE: Bete noire is French for "black
beast."

QUOTE: "Even more regrettable, as far as Dame
Edna is
concerned, is the presence of her old bete noire,
the
extravagantly disgusting Sir Les Patterson."
--"The Dame's New Man," Daily Telegraph, April
18, 1998