cause célèbre
5
9.3
- noun
- /kɔz səˈlɛbrə/
:
causa célebre
- The case of the whistleblower quickly turned into a cause célèbre as public outrage grew.
- became a cause célèbre
- national cause célèbre
Examples
-
The issue of discovery cost allocation, long ignored by both courts and scholars, has become something of a cause célèbre in the last few years.
Academic text (2018) -
For many years, the Sacco-Vanzetti case was a cause célèbre for the American Left.
Academic text (1991) -
The Blue Lake battle was by now a cause célèbre in Washington.
Academic text (1991) -
The case became a regional and national cause célèbre.
Academic text (2011) -
And that will then become a human rights cause célèbre.
Blog text (21) -
Last year's cause célèbre was the changing of the school mascot.
-
Lisette died in an Annapolis hospital before that proposal became law, but not before she became a cause célèbre during those last painful weeks.
Fiction book (1995) -
The essay appeared in 1944 and quickly became a cause célèbre, castigated by intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic.
Academic text (1999) -
The secret sale, just when Angoff seemed to be on the verge of infusing new life into the magazine, was something of a cause célèbre in the New York literary world.
Academic text (2007) -
For the American press, Fay's case became a national cause célèbre, an affront to America by an upstart Asian country that dared to whip one of its citizens.
Academic text (2003)
Synonyms
564
2.8
An action that shocks the public because it is illegal or morally wrong
Antonyms
How Newsworthy
Surface Forms
Morphology
cause + célèbre
The phrase literally combines 'cause' (an event or reason) with French 'célèbre' (famous), so the sense 'a famous or high-profile cause/incident' is directly derivable if a learner knows both constituents. Although it is a French loanword used as a fixed phrase in English, its meaning is compositional and clear from the parts.
Etymology
The phrase cause célèbre comes from French: cause and célèbre mean 'case' and 'famous', and it was first used for court cases that everyone talked about. That's why today cause célèbre means an event or issue that 'attracts public attention'.