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These proper names that we owe to Molière

2022-01-15T08:41:38.936Z


"Mamamouchi", "tartuffe", "harpagon"... On the occasion of the playwright's 400th birthday, Le Figaro returns to these names that have entered the "language of Molière".


We knew the cooking Latin of the ridiculous doctors of Molière and their famous oath teeming with invented words:

“De non ever you serve as remediis noneis quam of those only doctae Facultatis, maladus dust-il crevare, et mori de suo malo?”

The playwright repeatedly makes fun of this learned speech and forges many words on Greek, Latin, or even Arabic etymologies.

In particular, these roots are found hidden in many proper nouns which then passed into everyday language in the form of common nouns.

This is called an antonomasia.

mammouchi

"Peace!

Insolent, pay respect to Monsieur le Mamamouchi,” exclaims Monsieur Jourdain, responding to his wife who makes fun of his outfit.

This scene is undoubtedly the most comical of Le

Bourgeois Gentilhomme

, written in 1670: while Monsieur Jourdain refuses the union of his daughter with Cléonte, the latter decides to ridicule him during a burlesque ceremony where the bourgeois gentleman is decorated of the false title of "mamamouchi".

This funny-sounding name is an allegedly Turkish honorary title invented by Molière.

It would come, according to the TLFi, from Arabic:

“mamamouchi would be a deformation of the Arabic baba mouchir, a flattering name meaning roughly father pasha”.

Currently, this term is used to designate a junk dignitary.

Doppleganger

The name of Sosie, if it appears for the first time in a comedy by Plautus, is made famous by Molière's

Amphitryon

, created in 1668. Sosie is thus the valet of Amphitryon, whose appearance Mercury takes for better deceive the beautiful Alcmene.

“Sosie” is simply the French form of the Greek name Sosias, used by Plautus in his Amphitryon.

The word has entered common language to designate a person with a strong resemblance to another.

Amphitryon

He too comes to us from the eponymous play by Plautus, from which Molière was inspired and passed on the name to posterity.

He is Sosie's master and Alcmene's deceived husband.

Under his features, Jupiter pretends to be him in his wife's bed and from this semi-divine union is born the demi-god Heracles.

Amphitryon's name comes from the Greek prefix amphi which means "both sides at once" and from the verb truô, "to exhaust".

It is therefore the one that is “doubly exhausting”.

His name has remained with us thanks to the sentence of Sosie who, when asked who Amphitryon is, answers:

“The real Amphitryon / Is the Amphitryon where we dine”.

An “host” is therefore not a cuckolded husband or a severe master but only a generous host.

Harpagon

This one is not sympathetic: Harpagon is the avaricious character of the play l'

Avare

by Molière, created in 1668. In addition to watching over his grit to the point of unreason, this character poses as a severe and selfish father: he opposes the marriages of his daughter and his son with parties who are too poor.

The playwright played here with the Greek etymologies of the name of the bluestem:

harpax, harpagos

, in Greek, means the “raptor”.

When we say, today, that such a man is a “harpagon”, it is to say that this one is miserly and heartless, like the Harpagon in the play.

Tartuffe

“Tartuffe?

He is doing wonderfully, / Fat and fat, with a fresh complexion, and a vermilion mouth,”

replies Dorine, the servant, to her master Orgon.

This description of Tartuffe sets the tone for the play

Tartuffe ou l'Imposteur

, created in 1669: a moralizing false devotee interferes in Orgon's family to take advantage of room and board... but also of his wife Elvire.

The name of this famous freeloader comes from the Italian, as the TLFi points out:

“Borrowed from the Italian tartufo, attested in a pejorative sense (perhaps “deceiver, impostor”).”

It remained in the French form of "tartuffe" to designate an impostor who takes advantage of the situation.

It is also found in derivatives: "trufferie" or "truffle", for "imposture" or "to deceive someone".

Dom Juan

This last name is not the least known.

It is the great seducer of Molière, the main character of the play

Dom Juan ou Le Festin de Pierre

who recounts the last days of this gallant who, flanked by his valet Sganarelle, runs from petticoat to petticoat until the ultimate punishment, the death.

This baroque piece is inspired by a news item that would have taken place in Seville in the 14th century.

It has inspired many works such as

The Abuser of Seville

and

The Stone Guest

by Tirso de Molina or

Mozart's opera

Don Giovanni .

He went down in history as antonomasia "dom juan", thus designating a "woman's man".

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2022-01-15

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