Re:Verlan: French slang that inverses words
by bestouff on Sunday February 02, 2020 @05:44AM
(#22216323)
There's often a final "e" in French, which is then changed to "eu" after the word gets reversed (and then often truncated). Another example is "herbe" (literally "grass" but now more often used for cannabis) which becomes "beuher" then "beuh").
As the final "e" is often mute, this process is then generalized even to words where it's not there. As a widely used example, a "flic" (slang for a "cop") becomes a "keufli" then a "keuf".
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Re:Verlan: French slang that inverses words
by jeanmichelx on Sunday February 02, 2020 @06:17AM
(#22216429)
Oh gosh I've been using some of these words without even realising they were shortened verlan.
Re:Verlan: French slang that inverses words
by tripa on Sunday February 02, 2020 @09:14AM
(#22216989)
I'll add the two I had to have explained to me:
chèm <- moche (ugly), not to be confused with chanmé <- méchant (bad) (think bad motherfucker), whose ending can't affort to drop.
reuch <- cher (expensive), not to be understood as an anglicism for "rush".
Re:Verlan: French slang that inverses words
by jvelo on Sunday February 02, 2020 @02:44PM
(#22218933)
> chèm <- moche (ugly)
You'd write it cheum (moche => cheu-mo => cheum')
Re:Verlan: French slang that inverses words
by tripa on Sunday February 02, 2020 @05:42PM
(#22219995)
I've only ever heard is as chèm, so that's how I'd write it.
Re:Verlan: French slang that inverses words
by jvelo on Tuesday February 04, 2020 @05:57AM
(#22234248)
Sorry, I meant "it's written cheum"
Re:Verlan: French slang that inverses words
by hoistbypetard on Sunday February 02, 2020 @05:06PM
(#22219779)
I knew what "keuf" meant, but never how it got constructed. I learned the word because of an MC Solaar lyric... "Qui vole un oeuf, vole un boeuf. Qui viole une meuf se fait serrer par les keufs."
"meuf" was obvious to me but "keuf" never was.
So thank you! You've answered something I was wondering about for more than 20 years now.
Re:Verlan: French slang that inverses words
by bestouff on Tuesday February 04, 2020 @09:30AM
(#22235865)
You're welcome. I give back to HN what HN gave to me (obscure knowledge).
Re:Verlan: French slang that inverses words
by oliv__ on Sunday February 02, 2020 @03:58PM
(#22219371)
Putain j'aurais jamais su. Thanks HN
Re:Verlan: French slang that inverses words
by wazoox on Sunday February 02, 2020 @10:16AM
(#22217258)
Also "reubeu": it's "arabe" becoming "beura" in verlan, shortened to "beur", then reversed again to "reubeu".
Re:Verlan: French slang that inverses words
by julienfr112 on Sunday February 02, 2020 @03:31PM
(#22219227)
there is also something funny: beurette, which is a feminization of beur, didn't have any particular meaning in the 90's but became very perogative in the 10's meaning a girl that want to show off but is not interesting. Oh, and it's now use without regard to race.