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Glite Dictionary
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin

9.9
The birth name of the French playwright Molière
  • proper noun
: Jean-Baptiste Poquelin
  • Many scholars refer to Jean-Baptiste Poquelin by his more famous stage name, Molière.

Examples

  • Jean-Baptiste Poquelin is Molière.

  • The comedies written by Jean-Baptiste Poquelin are still performed around the world today.

  • Few realize that Jean-Baptiste Poquelin was not only a playwright but also an accomplished actor.

  • Many scholars refer to Jean-Baptiste Poquelin by his more famous stage name, Molière.

  • What a genius Jean-Baptiste Poquelin was!

  • Few realize that Jean-Baptiste Poquelin was not only a playwright but also an accomplished actor.

  • The comedies written by Jean-Baptiste Poquelin are still performed around the world today.

Surface Forms

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin main

Morphology

Jean-Baptiste + Poquelin

This is a proper personal name whose meaning (that it is the birth name of the playwright Molière) is not compositionally built from its parts; the constituents are name elements, not transparent lexical items. Proper names are arbitrary labels across languages, so even if a learner recognizes 'Jean-Baptiste' and 'Poquelin' they would not be able to derive the identity/definition, making it opaque to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin was the birth name of the French writer and actor best known by his stage name 'Molière'. He used a different name when he acted and wrote, so people today usually call him 'Molière'.