Formerly used to speak of the “community of Beggars”, “slang” has been defined since the 17th century by the conventional and secret vocabulary in use among bohemians, beggars and criminals (vagabonds, thieves, murderers).
As indicated by the French Academy, it is only later that the word is used to qualify the lexicon adopted by people of the same profession.
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Of obscure origin itself, "slang" refers to many terms whose origin remains unsuspected.
This is the case with the "condé", designating the policeman, for example.
Others, on the other hand, have a very clear path.
Soldiers who served overseas introduced them into everyday language, like the "cahoua" or the "razzia", from Arabic.
Similarly, French speakers have distorted the meaning of certain terms by analogy with what they designate.
Example: in Lorraine Franconian and Alsatian Alemannic, “schneck” (from the German “Schnecke”, “snail”) designates a bread with raisins.
As can be read in the
New dictionary of the green language
(Denoël) by Pierre Merle, it is probably by analogy with the texture of this viennoiserie that the word also qualifies the female sex...
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