Georges Seurat

1 8.0

A French painter who paints pictures using many small dots of color

proper noun

: Georges Seurat

Georges Seurat is famous for pioneering the pointillist method of painting.

Examples

Many art students study the work of Georges Seurat to learn about color theory.
The museum is exhibiting several masterpieces by Georges Seurat this summer.
Look at Georges Seurat!
I love Georges Seurat!
Georges Seurat is famous for pioneering the pointillist method of painting.
Many art students study the work of Georges Seurat to learn about color theory.
The museum is exhibiting several masterpieces by Georges Seurat this summer.

Surface Forms

Georges Seurat main

Morphology

Georges + Seurat

This is a proper name referring to a specific person; knowing the constituent tokens 'Georges' and 'Seurat' (both names) does not allow a learner to infer the biographical meaning 'a French painter who developed pointillism'. Proper nouns are arbitrary and language-specific, so their referential meaning is not compositionally derived from the parts and will be opaque to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Georges Seurat became famous for making pictures from thousands of tiny dots of color. This method, called 'pointillism', makes the colours come alive when you step back, so his name now brings to mind that dotted painting style.