malleable (iou) and Joffre, Joseph (-Jacques-Cesaire) (sh)

malleable (iou)

malleable adjective. LME.
[Old French from medieval Latin malleabilis, from Latin malleare to hammer, formed as MALLEUS + -ABLE.]
Esp. of a metal: able to be hammered or pressed out of shape without a tendency to return to the original shape or to fracture. LME.
malleable cast iron, malleable iron cast iron which has been decarburized by oxidation under prolonged heat and made somewhat malleable.
transf. & fig. Able to be fashioned or adapted; adaptable, pliable. E17.
John Brooke He saw the Prince as undeveloped and malleable and he tried to shape his character. V. Brome Neither the media universe nor the events of everyday life were malleable to his will.
mallea'bility noun L17.
malleableize verb trans. make malleable L19.
malleableness noun (now rare) M17.

Joffre, Joseph (-Jacques-Cesaire) (sh)

born Jan. 12, 1852, Rivesaltes, France
died Jan. 3, 1931, Paris

French commander in chief on the Western Front in World War I. He was responsible for the calamitous campaign with which the French army began operations in 1914 against Germany, but he shifted his forces and created a new French army under his direct command that won a great victory in the First Battle of the Marne (1914).

As commander in chief (1915-16), he ordered the French armies to burst through the German positions, at ruinous cost. His prestige waned, and, because of the lack of French preparation for the Battle of Verdun (1916), he was stripped of his direct command and resigned. He was created a marshal of France in 1916.

Joffre, detail of a portrait by H. Jacquier, 1915

H. Roger-Viollet

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