Fin de siècle
Etymology
French for “end of century” (“fin,” end; “siècle,” century, from Latin “saeculum,” “age”). It referred specifically to the 1890s and carries connotations of world-weariness, aestheticism, and moral uncertainty. The phrase can now loosely describe any decadent, end-of-an-era mood.
noun phrase · /fan duh see-EK-luh/
The mood of decadence, weariness, and unease at the close of the 19th century.
What it names
A distinctive end-of-era feeling — glamour shadowed by exhaustion and the sense that something is about to end.
Example
There was a fin de siècle glamour to the party, beautiful and faintly doomed.
Related idea
Distinguish it from the Belle Époque, which spans the same years but frames them as sunny and prosperous — fin de siècle stresses the anxiety and decline instead.
See also