Etymology

enfant terrible

Today it means: An unconventional badly-behaved person who causes embarrassment or shock to others. Full definition →

French enfant terrible
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. French · borrowed fromenfant terrible
  2. English todayenfant terrible

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

Words from the same roots

Frenchenfant terrible all →

terrible infant

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.