French Aphereses and Abbreviations ~ Les Aphérèses

Glossary of shortened French words

French Acronyms + Abbreviations | Apocopes | Aphereses

An apheresis, or aphaeresis, is a word which is shortened by dropping one or more syllables at the beginning of the word, and sometimes adding an extra sound at the end. Aphereses are often informal and are less common in French than apocopes.

Note that the translation given is for the apheresis, which does not always mean the same thing as the term it came from.

	Apheresis	Term	Translation of the apheresis
Normal Register
	un bus	un autobus	bus
	le centile	percentile	percentile
	un chandail	marchand d'ail	thick sweater
	Monsieur, Dame	Monsieur, Madame	Sir, Ma'am (greeting)
	le Net	l'Internet	internet
	'Soir	Bonsoir	Good evening
	un steak	un beefsteak (bifteck)	steak
Informal/Familiar
	un blème	un problème	problem
	un bouif	un ribouis	cobbler
	droper	adroper	to run
	un gnard	mignard	kid
	un gnon	oignon	hit, blow
	man	maman	mom
	pitaine	capitaine	captain
	tiot	petiot	tiny, teeny-weeny
	un troquet	un mastroquet	café
Archaic
	un bougna(t)	un charbougnat	coalman, coal merchant
	un cipal	un garde municipal	~local police
	las	hélas	alas
	la touffeur	étouffer	sweltering heat
	tudieu	vertu (de) Dieu	zounds
Nicknames
	Colas	Nicolas
	Soize	Françoise
	Toine	Antoine
Nationalities
These two terms are derogatory slang - they are included here for reference only. You should never say them.
	boche	alboche	German
	ricain	américain	American

  

 

  

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