L'enfant terrible

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L'Enfant terrible (Terrible child) is a French term for a child who is terrifyingly candid by saying embarrassing things to adults, especially parents. The Webster's Dictionary also defines a L'Enfant terrible as a usually successful person who is strikingly unorthodox, innovative, or avant-garde.

The term Les Enfants Terribles was also used in Metal Gear Solid to describe one of the key plot elements.

Origin of term

Its use was coined by Thomas Jefferson to describe Pierre Charles L'Enfant, Architect of Washington, who was a handsome, idealistic, and very headstrong French military engineer. L'Enfant had difficulties dealing with the map engravers and then United States Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, and Washington City Commissioner Daniel Carroll especially after L'Enfant had Carroll's new house, still under construction, torn down to build a street. L'Enfant was fired after only eleven months by Jefferson.

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