Here’s a posse of my favorite renegades:
accro hooked on something. Abbreviation of accrocher, “to hook.” You can be accro on anything you want to.
afnaf from the English “half-and-half”
arglais neologism denoting the mixture of slang and English; e.g., C’est un mec au look cool (“He’s a guy with a cool look”)
breaker (pronounced bréquer) to take a break
Camembert big shot; translation of “big cheese,” the Anglo-American equivalent to the French une grosse legume
C’est glitter! It’s great, superb, and, above all, showy, as in Glitter, tes chouzes! (see chouzes below); from the English “to glitter”
C’est l’hallu! I can’t believe my eyes! Also common: J’hallucine!
chéwam (pronounced chéouame) at my house, chez moi, in backslang; Chéwam ou chéwat? (“My place or yours?”)
chouzes from the English shoes
from name given to those born and bred in France by those born and bred elsewhere; abbreviation of fromage blanc
pagetourner to decide to break up with somebody, as in Je vais la pagetourner
scotché fixed, unable to “peel oneself away”; from Scotch tape, scotcher means “to stick.” By extension, être scotché is to be amazed, to be rooted to the spot: J’suis scotché!
See the full Dico de l’Argot fin-de-siècle (in French, of course).
E-mail me your favorite French slang terms.
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