French Slang, Jargon, and New Words from Double-Tongued Dictionary

French language. You can also see entries assigned to this category.

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babtou n. Verlan’s purview extends beyond French: In reporting on the recent unrest, Peter was interested to hear black teens use the word babtou. It was the “verlanization” of a West African term, toubab, meaning white person. [ Language French Register Slang] [full cite] (Nov. 29, 2005)

bad adj. Emprunté à l’anglais, le mot “bad” ne veut pas dire “mauvais,” mais son contraire “bon”—preuve que le jeu est bien de brouiller les pistes. [English-derived French Slang] [full cite] (Mar. 19, 2005)

bicephalism n. Getting Airbus back to cruising altitude would be difficult enough with one pilot in charge, but Gallois says there’s no need to change EADS’s two-headed system. “I don’t know if bicephalism is an English word,” he says, “but it brings out the best.” [English French] [full cite] (Jul. 30, 2006)

Black n. Cela ne veut pas dire qu’on est racistes. Blacks, Blancs ou “Hindous,” on a tous grandi dans la même cité. On peut se permettre des familiarités sur nos différences de culture. C’est un jeu. [English-derived French Slang] [full cite] (Mar. 19, 2005)

booshway n. Wolfe has been a part of the festival for 20 years and is this year’s booshway, from the French term bourgeois or proprietor of the land. He is in charge of coordinating the reenactors and demonstrators. The fest has about 80 demonstrators, most of which are volunteers, who settle in for a weekend of living, 1800s-style. [English French] [full cite] (Oct. 1, 2006)

bougie n. Even a very good “candle hit” as we say in french ("une bougie"=="a candle” is a spike which hits an opponents directly in his head…just like gently blowing a candle…:-)). [French Sports & Recreation] [full cite] (Dec. 22, 2004)

brix n. The grapes are picked when their brix (another French word referring to the sugar level in the grapes on the vine) registers at 12 to 14, which is always in the summer but varies in each area of the vineyards. [English French Food & Drink] [full cite] (Mar. 31, 2005)

chimère n. “I have a mother, a wife, children, why would I vote? I could be shot by a chimere,” said Kapito, 40, an unemployed taxi driver who gave only his first name, using a pejorative term to refer to armed pro-Aristide militants. [French French-based Creole Haiti] [full cite] (Jun. 6, 2005)

cliché-verre n. Photographer K.E. Duffin used a technique called cliché-verre to create her winning photograph called “Anatomy of a Hero.” [French Arts & Literature] [full cite] (Jul. 15, 2005)

coup de glotte n. Actually, Mr. Johnson explained, the trick at the heart of ventriloquism isn’t “throwing” the voice but “treating” it. Thanks to a throat-muscle manipulation that opera singers call a coup de glotte, the amplitude of the emerging sound waves is constricted in a way that the human ear misinterprets as distance. Keeping the lips immobile and shifting focus supports the illusion. [French Entertainment Music] [full cite] (Sep. 22, 2006)

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