Louchébem
Encyclopedia
Louchébem or loucherbem is Paris
ian and Lyon
naise butcher
s' (French
boucher) slang
, similar to Pig Latin
and Verlan
. It originated in the mid-19th century. Each word is transformed by moving the first consonant to the end; and suffixes such as -ème, -ji, -oc, -muche are added at the end; the letter "L" is placed at the beginning of the new word. Note that spelling often becomes phoneticised.
Some words from Louchébem, most notably "loufoque" have become common and moved into everyday slang.
There is another French argot
called largonji, which differs from louchébem only in the suffix that is added (-i instead of -em); the term is derived from jargon.
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
ian and Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
naise butcher
Butcher
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...
s' (French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
boucher) slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
, similar to Pig Latin
Pig Latin
Pig Latin is a language game of alterations played in English. To form the Pig Latin form of an English word the first consonant is moved to the end of the word and an ay is affixed . The object is to conceal the meaning of the words from others not familiar with the rules...
and Verlan
Verlan
Verlan is an argot in the French language, featuring inversion of syllables in a word, and is common in slang and youth language. It rests on a long French tradition of transposing syllables of individual words to create slang words...
. It originated in the mid-19th century. Each word is transformed by moving the first consonant to the end; and suffixes such as -ème, -ji, -oc, -muche are added at the end; the letter "L" is placed at the beginning of the new word. Note that spelling often becomes phoneticised.
- boucher (butcher) = Louchébem
- femme (woman, wife) = Lamfé
- monsieur (sir, mister) = Lesieum
- gigot (lamb leg, joint) = Ligogem
- patron (boss) = Latronpuche
- fou (mad) = Loufoque
Some words from Louchébem, most notably "loufoque" have become common and moved into everyday slang.
There is another French argot
Argot
An Argot is a secret language used by various groups—including, but not limited to, thieves and other criminals—to prevent outsiders from understanding their conversations. The term argot is also used to refer to the informal specialized vocabulary from a particular field of study, hobby, job,...
called largonji, which differs from louchébem only in the suffix that is added (-i instead of -em); the term is derived from jargon.