The slang characteristic of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is lost.
So it is with the colorful nuances of the popular language of poulbots, a Gavroche or a Claudine.
Do we remember it?
There were dozens of ways to swear or express annoyance while skirting around direct insult or blasphemous curse.
The editorial staff has selected for you a small collection of these
"vulgar"
and obsolete
words
which will take you on a journey through the ages.
Rififi guaranteed!
• Macache
In 1944, in her novel
Gigi,
Colette made her character exclaim:
“As for the mille-feuilles, macache!
It's frozen sponge cake! ”
This expression, common in the middle of the 19th century and until the first part of the 20th century, comes from the Arabic ma-kanch, which means
"there is not"
.
Brought back to France after the conquest of Algeria by French soldiers, it takes on the meaning of
"it's nothing"
,
"not at all"
or even
"impossible"
depending on the proposals in which it is used.
According to the Trésor de la langue française, this word can also be used in the expression
"macach bono"
to signify disgust or refusal.
• Bernique
If
"bernique"
resembles
"bourrique"
or
"bique"
, it has in common with these animals only the smell.
Indeed, the word
“bernique”
comes from the Norman words
“bren”
and
“bran”
which mean, in colloquial language,
“excrements”
, as the Treasury of the French language underlines it.
Thus the
“Bernese!”
Interjection
!
is she real rudeness, a bad word that doesn't sound like it.
Something to swear discreetly during your next arguments, like Father Ubu in
Jarry
's
Ubu Roi
:
"Bernique!"
Get by, my friend;
for the moment, we are doing our Pater Noster. ”
• Pignouf
"Mufle"
,
"goujat"
,
"bittern"
could be his other names.
It lacks manners, finesse, timeliness, in short, distinction.
In a nutshell, this rude character is the reverse of a gentleman.
It would come from the verb
"pigner"
which means
"to moan"
,
"to cry"
, teaches us the Treasure of the French language.
It is undoubtedly Romain Gary who gives the best appreciation of it in his novel
Europa
:
"It must be said that money, with its down to earth side, pignouf and big hooves, firmly confined you in the two-and-two. -four ”
.
Therefore, vary from
"boorish"
and say
"pignouf" ...
• Rastaquouère
"How dare you talk to me about love, you, eh, you who never knew Lola Rastaquouère?"
Sung by Gainsbourg, it evokes the
"rasta"
movement
of reggae singers of the 1970s and Jamaica. But the word
"rastaquouère"
is much older than Bob Marley. This expression appears in the French popular language in the 19th century and designates, according to the French Academy, an
“exotic character who displays a suspicious luxury and in bad taste”
. It comes to us from the Hispanic
"rastracueros"
which, originally, literally means
"scraper of skins"
, that is to say
"tanner"
.
By extension, it designates a South American man who made a fortune (perhaps thanks to the leather trade) and who flaunts his wealth, as there were many in the late nineteenth century in Paris.
• Patafiolate
There again, it is through the song that this strange verb passed to posterity.
Thus Pierre Perret, in his childish
Tonton Cristobal
sings:
"My children, may the Virgin plague us, rather than one day seeing her vial again"
.
"Patafiolate"
is therefore to curse, or to bless, in an ironic sense.
This word certainly comes, according to the Treasury of the French language, from the prefix
"pat-"
which refers to the movement of the hand, and from the word
"flask"
which evokes the drink, perhaps even the wine of mass, which explains the meaning of
“patafiolate”
as a
blasphemous
“gesture of blessing”
.
