Like every year, French dictionary Larousse is enriched with new words. For the 2021 edition, 150 words are being added to the dictionary. The new version includes 63 500 words and 28 000 proprer nouns.
These new words reflect the evolution of our society and its concerns. That’s what explains new words like Antivax which represents the recent movement of people who are against vaccination and influenceur which is a commonly used word.
Credit photo : Silviu Costin Iancu of Pixabay
Here is our selection of the 10 must know new words added to the French dictionary.
1. Le brouteur
Le brouteur is an online scammer. This word is originated from Ivory Coast colloquial language.
Example : Je ne me suis rendue compte que mon correspondant était un brouteur que lorsqu’il m’a arnaquée (I only realised that my penpal was a scammer when I got scammed).
2. Le Nanane
This word is issued from Canadian Quebec language practices. Nanane simply means candy. Do not make a confusion with Banane which means banana !
Example : Louis, tu veux un nanane ? (Louis, do you want a candy?)
3. Le Zèbre
We all know le zèbre for zebra, the animal. This time, the word enters in the dictionary with a new meaning. Un zèbre stands for a genius kid.
Example : Martin nous a toujours impressionnés par ses réponses, c’est un zèbre ce garcon ! (We are always impressed by Martin’s answers, this boy is a genius! )
4. Le Féminicide
This is a trending word that means murdering a woman because of her gender.
Example : Le féminicide est un crime qui doit être sévèrement puni (Women homicide is a crime that should be punished severely).
5. La Remontada
This word is taken from spanish soccer. In a soccer match, it represents an unexpected ascent of the score allowing one of the teams to win despite the big gap that was existing between both teams.
Example : En 2017, Le FC Barcelone a realisé une des plus impressionnantes remontadas de l’histoire du football en marquant 3 buts dans les dernières minutes du match (FC Barcelone did one of the most impressive ascent of football history by scoring 3 goals in the last minutes of the match).
6. Le Dégagisme
This is the trend of desobeing or rejecting the established power, through voting or rebellion, without necessarily planning to replace them. Asking for the departure of a minister is an example.
Example : Ces dernières années, le dégagisme est devenu une tendance grandissante (In recent years, rebellion has become a growing trend).
7. Le Hygge
Le hygge is a feeling of wellbeing and welfare characterizing the Danish art of living. It is Obtained by focusing on authenticity, the comfort of your home and family life.
Example : Pour être heureux, j’applique la philosophie du hygge (To be happy i apply the hygge philosophy).
8. Le Frugalisme
It represents the life style of people who prefer to save a lot money while having a sober life in order to have an early retirement and live better.
Example : L’objectif du frugalisme est d’être suffisamment organisé pour obtenir une indépendance financière et vivre plus heureux (The objective of "frugalisme" is to get sufficiently organised to become financially independent and live happily).
9. Le Chatbot
Chat stands for conversation and bot for robot. “Le chabot” is simply a robot for chatting. It’s a program based on artificial intelligence, that enables to answer instantly to web users questions . It acts as a virtual adviser.
Example : j’ai installé un chatbot sur mon site web pour faciliter la gestion de la relation avec ma clientèle ( I installed a chatbot on my web site to ease the customer relationship management).
10. La Gréviculture
La gréviculture is the trend of going systematically on strike during a social conflict engaging employees and their management, acting as a starting point to any dialog or negotiation.
Example : La gréviculture est une vraie gangrène pour notre société. (Systematically going on strike is a real gangrene for our society)
These are the ten new words or new meanings I wanted to share with you.
Did you know some of them before? What other words do you know from the 2021 Larousse edition?
Share with us in the comments section.
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