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"He's like", "I've got the slab"... But where do these expressions that young people love come from?

2022-03-04T06:20:59.710Z


We hear them, we use them, but we don't (always) know what they really mean. Le Figaro sheds light on your lantern.


What is youth?

A passage, we often say.

It's also dreams, projects, carelessness... but also a language.

With his words, his expressions and his tics, he stands out from that of his elders.

In particular by the use of verlan, that is to say the inversion of syllables in a word.

And very often, this language draws its inspiration from slang, which the previous generation already used.

But what is the meaning of these phrases?

Where do they come from?

Anthology of these expressions that flutter among young people.

● "He's like"

The

“gender”

was first written son-in-

law.

It appears at the beginning of the 11th century through the Latin

genus

(

“origin, birth”

) and means

“sort, type”

.

Its meaning widens in 1200 to refer to

"sex"

, according to the dictionary.

How could this word end up in one of our common formulas?

When a person exclaims about someone:

“he acts like”

, he points to the way he has to have manners, to give himself an appearance.

This is indeed one of the definitions of the word:

"manner, style proper to an artist, to a writer."

It is sometimes heard as:

“geeeeeenre!”

, to say

"it's not true?!"

.

● “Relou ce iench”

The verlan is a great success in France.

To the delight of foreigners, who have fun with this very popular language game among 12-25 year olds.

Thus, in

“relou ce iench”

, understand for the uninitiated:

“heavy this dog”

that is to say

“this dog is painful”

.

But did you know that we didn't invent anything?

This inverted language already existed in the 17th century, explains Sylvain Vanderesse in

30 days to jacter as mezigue

(Éditions de l'Opportun, 2022).

At that time, we already said

"les Bonbours"

for the Bourbons.

According to the author,

"Voltaire himself was able to choose his pseudonym from the town of Airvault, where he spent his holidays."

● "I have the slab, what slab!"

What a funny word.

If its origin is obscure, it does not date from yesterday.

According to the Trésor de la langue française, the

“slab”

appears in French slang as early as 1829!

He then called himself

“dail”

.

A few years later, here is our

"que dal"

pointing the tip of his nose to express in popular French a negation, a refusal.

"Dal(le)"

properly means:

"nothing"

.

The interjection

“que dal(le)”

is said when there is nothing, that

“it is pure illusion”

, or as a synonym of

“quite the contrary”

.

As for the formula

"I have the slab"

, it was formed by the fact that in the past, the word

"slab"

pointed to the throat, the throat.

Another formula exists with this word:

"to wash the slab of the neck"

, which means:

"to drink"

.

Or

“have the slab on a slope”

, or

“like to drink”

.

Make your choice!

● “Watch out!”

This is extremely common.

"Watch out!"

means

“watch out!”

.

But did you know that this popular phrase already existed in early 20th century slang?

Céline, master of the green language, uses it from 1936 in

Death on credit

:

“With the kid I made a mistake!

I was extremely careful, I didn't tell stories, I wanted to be on the sidelines

.

"Gaffe"

was also used to warn of a danger:

"Gaffe!"

, we could hear in the past.

When the word appears in French in the 15th century, it then designates a

"sergeant"

.

It is found three centuries later in the expression

"to stay on the lookout"

, i.e.

"to watch"

, then

"to be on the lookout"

, before changing into

"to be careful"

, in 1927. It comes from the old German

kapfen

,

gaffen, "to look open-mouthed, to gaze"

, or from the German

Goof "onlooker".

● “He's got it!”

Let's give back to Caesar what is Caesar... or rather to Quebecers.

This expression was born in the country with the maple leaf in the form

: "to blow up your suspenders"

, we read on the site L'Internaute.

She was referring to the men's dress in vogue in the 19th century, which consisted of trousers, a shirt and suspenders:

"it was common at the time to tighten one's suspenders with one's thumbs before doing them smack against his chest when one was proud.”

This is why it is used as a colloquial synonym of

"he brags"

or

"he tells it to himself"

.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2022-03-04

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