Albert Camus

2 6.3

A French writer and thinker who wrote The Stranger and explored life's lack of meaning

proper noun
/ˈæl.bɚt kæˈmu/

: Albert Camus

Books by Albert Camus, such as 'The Plague', raise profound questions about life and meaning.

Examples

Albert Camus won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957 for his contribution to modern thought.
I just finished reading Albert Camus's 'The Stranger'.
Many scholars discuss Albert Camus when analyzing existential and absurdist philosophy.
The works of Albert Camus continue to influence writers and philosophers worldwide.
Albert Camus is a famous author.
Albert Camus is renowned for his exploration of the absurd and the human condition in literature.
Scholars frequently reference Albert Camus in discussions about existentialism and absurdism.

Synonyms

Camus

vsAlbert Camus

Literature

8 8.2

French writer and thinker who wrote about life's meaning and the feeling that life is meaningless

emphasizes absurdity and the broader human condition instead of the existential label

Surface Forms

Albert Camus main

Morphology

Albert + Camus

This is a proper name whose meaning (a particular French writer and philosopher) is not compositional from the parts 'Albert' and 'Camus'; the constituents are labels rather than semantically combinable words. A B1 learner who knows the two name-parts would not be able to infer the biographical information without prior exposure, so the expression is idiomatic in that sense.

Etymology

Albert Camus was a French writer who used a strong image in his book 'The Myth of Sisyphus' — a man forced to push a rock up a hill again and again. Because of that picture, his name now often stands for ideas about the 'absurd' and the repeating, difficult parts of human life.