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Glite Dictionary
Marquis de Lafayette

Marquis de Lafayette

1 8.9
A French noble and soldier who helped the American colonies gain independence
  • proper noun
  • /mɑrˈki dɪ lɑˈfajɛt/
: Marqués de Lafayette
  • The Marquis de Lafayette played a crucial role in securing French support during the American Revolution.
  • Marquis de Lafayette's 1825

Examples

  • In 1825, the Marquis de Lafayette visited America to celebrate its independence.

  • George Washington described the origins of the Convention in similar terms in a letter to Marquis de Lafayette on March 25th, 1787:

    Academic text (2016)

  • Many Americans honored the Marquis de Lafayette as a hero for his contributions to their fight for freedom.

Synonyms

Lafayette
vsMarquis de Lafayette
18 5.1

A French family name used for people and places, especially the French general from the American Revolution

refers to that specific historical individual rather than a general place or family name
La Fayette
vsMarquis de Lafayette
1 8.2

A French noble who fought with George Washington in the American Revolution and became famous in both countries

is a simpler account focusing on being an aristocrat and officer fighting with Americans

Surface Forms

Marquis de Lafayette main

Morphology

marquis + de + Lafayette

Knowing 'marquis' (a nobleman) and recognizing 'de' as a French preposition and 'Lafayette' as a name lets a B1 learner infer this is a nobleman called Lafayette (likely French), so some basic sense is derivable. However the specific biographical information (that he was a military officer who fought in the American Revolution) is encyclopedic and cannot be predicted from the constituents alone, making the expression only partially transparent.

Etymology

Marquis de Lafayette was the title of a young French noble, Gilbert du Motier, who crossed the ocean to fight with American forces in the Revolutionary War. The words Marquis and de Lafayette show he was a nobleman from a place called Lafayette, and because he risked his life to help the colonies, his name is remembered as a 'friend of the United States'.