Cinema and TV shows have created references known to all.
Thanks to their characters and some of their lines, the scriptwriters have succeeded in enriching our language by creating neologisms or expressions with sometimes surprising sounds.
From “Tanguy” the epinal image of a generation struggling to find its bearings, to Casimir's “gloubiboulga”, words from the small and big screen offer a vast and tasty panel.
On the occasion of the opening of the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, here are ten words that we use constantly and that we have all learned by watching our television.
● Casimir's “Gloubiboulga”
An imaginary dish invented by the creators of the very popular television show
L'Ile aux enfants
in the 1970s, "gloubiboulga" is the favorite dish of the Casimir dinosaur.
The expression was so successful that it entered common parlance.
It designates a culinary mixture with an unsavory or at least surprising appearance but also, symbolically, an infamous mixture.
● “Supercalifragilisticexpidellicious”
This unpronounceable word is the title of a song featured in
Robert Stevenson 's film
Mary Poppins (1964).
It is a translation of the English "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious", a word coined by Helen Herman as an association of several terms ("super", "cali" (beauty), "fragilistic" (delicate), "expiali" (to expiate) and " docious” (educable)).
It has entered popular parlance and is most often used in an abbreviated form (“superquali”) as a synonym for “fantastic”.
Otherwise difficult to pronounce, especially quickly...
● The “klug”
In
Le Père Noël est une junk
by Jean-Marie Poiré (1982), the “Chestnut Klug” is a culinary specialty of Mr. Preskovic.
In homage to the recipe infects the character, we sometimes hear "it's klug" as a synonym of "it's disgusting".
● “Binz” and “Okayyyyyy”
Essential trilogy of French comic cinema,
Les Visiteurs
(1993) by Jean-Marie Poiré, has left us its share of expressions.
If the word "binz" (business, confused situation) was popularized by the film, the expression of Anglo-Saxon origin "Okayyyyyy" was transformed by the character "Jacquouille" played by Christian Clavier who imposed a famous interpretation.
● "I broke you" and "It farte"
With four million admissions, James Huth
's Brice de Nice
(2005) managed to turn his most famous lines into everyday phrases.
At least, at the beginning of the 2000s. The famous “J'tai broke” of the character played by Jean Dujardin was an equivalent of “j't'ai mouché”.
Let's also think of the verb "to wax" (to coat wax on skis) which took on another meaning with the film.
“How does it go?”
has become another way of saying "How's it going?".
Today these amusing formulas, if they are still used, are pronounced with derision.
● “Biloute”
The greatest success in the history of French cinema with more than twenty million admissions,
Bienvenue chez les Ch'ti
s directed by Danny Boon in 2008 made this mark of affection specific to the Nord-Pas-de-Calais a expression used throughout the country.
The word designates a term of affection, we read in the Larousse, in particular to qualify a little boy or a man.
● “Grouping”
This is one of the famous lines from the film
We found the Seventh Company
by Robert Lamoureux (1975).
This is a pastiche of German.
The word, but above all the expression "remain grouper", have entered popular language.
"Rester groupir" means "stay grouped".
● Be a “Tanguy”
"Being a Tanguy", the "Tanguy phenomenon", "Tanguy generation" are all variants born of the Epinal image produced by Etienne Chatiliez's film (2001) to describe a young person who has trouble taking his flight and persists in living with her parents.
