Dadais

Let's have another entry from le Dictionnaire Satyrique!

Dadais.

Mot injurieux, qui veut dire, sot, bête, niais, innocent, dandin. C'est le plus dadais que j'aye jamais vu, Molière, Bourg. Gentih.

Notes (with appreciation to imagin-nation.com and wikipedia):

Even as a child, Molière (1622-1673) thought it was a heck of a lot more fun to taunt and mimic the aristocracy than to associate with them.

Born to un des valets de chambre tapissiers (upholsterers for the king's court), he never showed any real interest for the business of upholstering. But his father's shop was located near the Pont-Neuf, where comedians performed farces in the street in order to promote and sell patent medicines to those passing by.

Exposure to this led to a deep interest in the theatre, and years later, on the evening of October 24, 1658, Molière and his troupe performed for the first time before Louis XIV and his courtiers in the Guard Room of the old Louvre Palace. They made a crucial mistake, however, by performing a second-rate tragedy by Cornielle. The Court was not not amused. Molière approached the King and secured permission to perform one of his own plays, Le Docteur Amoureux, (or the Love-Sick Doctor). From there, Molière gained a royal pension to his troupe and the title "Troupe du Roi" (The King's Troupe), continuing on as the official author of court entertainments.


Holding the distinction of the creator of modern French comedy, many of the words and phrases used in Molière's plays are still used in current French, for example, a tartuffe is a hypocrite, especially a hypocrite displaying affected morality or religious piety.Still today, Molière is considered one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature.