enfant terrible

See also: Enfant terrible

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French enfant terrible (literally “terrible child”).

Noun

enfant terrible (plural enfants terribles)

1. An unconventional badly-behaved person who causes embarrassment or shock to others.
   • 2010, Peter Coleman, Quadrant, March 2010, No. 464 (Volume LIV, Number 3), Quadrant Magazine Limited, page 86:

     He was soon the talk of the town, the enfant terrible of our little world.

2. An unusually successful person who is strikingly unorthodox, innovative, or avant-garde.
   • 1918, Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams‎^[1]:

     Diplomatists have no right to complain of mere lies; it is their own fault, if, educated as they are, the lies deceive them; but they complain bitterly of traps. Palmerston was believed to lay traps. He was the enfant terrible of the British Government.

   • 2023 March 28, Philip Oltermann, “Michel Houellebecq sex film to be released despite attempt to stop it”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     The clip shows the 67-year-old enfant terrible of French letters in pyjamas lying on a bed next to a woman in a nightie, smoking and laughing.

3. (obsolete, literally) A wild child.
   • 1876, Louisa May Alcott, Rose in Bloom‎^[3]:

     “A perfect cherub” she pronounced it the first day, but an “enfant terrible” before the week was over, for the young hero rioted by day, howled by night, ravaged the house from top to bottom, and kept his guardians in a series of panics by his hairbreadth escapes.

Synonyms

• terrible infant

Translations

unconventional badly-behaved person

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 頑童／顽童 (zh) (wántóng), 淘氣鬼／淘气鬼 (zh) (táoqìguǐ)

• Dutch: enfant terrible (nl) n
• Finnish: kauhukakara (fi)
• French: enfant terrible (fr) m
• German: Enfant terrible (de) n
• Japanese: アンファンテリブル (anfan teriburu)
• Russian: анфа́н-терри́бль m (anfán-terríblʹ), несно́сный челове́к m (nesnósnyj čelovék)
• Spanish: niño terrible m

See also

• bad boy

Catalan

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French enfant terrible (“terrible child”).

Noun

enfant terrible m (plural enfants terribles)

1. enfant terrible

Dutch

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French enfant terrible (“terrible child”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑnˌfɑn tɛˈri.blə/, [ɑ̃ˌfɑ̃ tɛˈri.blə]

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

enfant terrible n (plural enfants terribles)

1. enfant terrible

French

Etymology

Literally, “terrible child”, i.e. “badly-behaved child”.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑ̃.fɑ̃ tɛ.ʁibl/, /ɑ̃.fɑ̃ te.ʁibl/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

enfant terrible m (plural enfants terribles)

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see enfant,‎ terrible.
2. enfant terrible, wild child

Descendants

• → Catalan: enfant terrible
• → Dutch: enfant terrible
• → English: enfant terrible
• → German: Enfant terrible
• → Russian: анфа́н-терри́бль (anfán-terríblʹ)