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Sep 1, 2010
This week's theme
Terms from French

This week's words
agent provocateur
decolletage
enfant terrible
fait accompli
faux
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

enfant terrible

PRONUNCIATION:
(ahn*-fahn* te-REE-bluh)
[* these syllables are nasal]
plural enfants terribles (ahn*-fahn* te-REE-bluh)

MEANING:
noun: A person, especially someone famous or successful, whose unconventional lifestyle, work, or behavior appears shocking.

ETYMOLOGY:
From French enfant terrible (terrible child).

USAGE:
"Once an enfant terrible, who as a young filmmaker challenged censors and outraged conservative critics, Koji Wakamatsu has not mellowed so much as ripened."
Mark Schilling; All's Unfair in Love and War; The Japan Times (Tokyo); Aug 13, 2010.

See more usage examples of enfant terrible in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
If any man seeks for greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth, and he will find both. -Horace Mann, educational reformer (1796-1859)

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