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Is 'dégueulasse' a swear word or gros mot? Or is it appropriate to use day to day?

Matt
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3 Answers3

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It is not really a swear word, but I would tell my kids not to say that. It is not a "nice" word, although not extremely rude either. Let's say it is below average, polite conversation, but not very offensive either. You would most probably not write it. You can use it between friends, or in family (not counting the kids). The nuance is more one of disgust than anything else.

For example, if someone did something really bad to somebody else at work, you could react with c'est vraiment dégueulasse, c'est vraiment dégueu (also commonly used) to show your complete disgust and your contempt for the offender. Disguting with the proper tone in English is quite close, although the French dégueulasse is less advisable (disgusting and dégoûtant (see below) share a common root (but I did not verify)).

An even less advisable word would be gerbax ("puke inducing"?), and this is definitely reaching into slang. Going in the other direction, an alternative could be: dégoûtant, and here we have crossed into more polite territory, polite enough for any conversation. Répugnant works too. As do révoltant and écoeurant. These last three are quite-middle-of-the-road, with slightly different nuances each time. Sale and horrible would be possible, but too weak and tame. Immonde is possible. So is infâme, which is now quite formal.

Frank
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    ¿¿ Gerbax ?? – jlliagre Mar 09 '17 at 10:05
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    I don't know gerbax either, but the rest of the answer is perfect – Matthieu Mar 09 '17 at 10:16
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    Gerbax makes me think of gerbatoire (which might not be in the dictionary either, but is more common IME). – Stephen Kitt Mar 09 '17 at 10:23
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    I did show this word to my kids, but yes, they did tend to go overboard with it, since the matter it describes is, well, disgusting –and therefore very amusing to kids–, so I had to limit its use at some point, especially ostentatious use at meal time. Maybe one shouldn’t use it in some conversations, but then people should also not venture into the territory of doing disgusting things or talking about them, lest they trigger someone to throw the term at them as a mean to straighten them out. – Pas un clue Mar 09 '17 at 10:59
  • @StephenKitt Yes, I finally found a few occurrences of gerbax with that meaning. I didn't know that word. – jlliagre Mar 09 '17 at 14:33
  • Incidentally, dégueulasse and marrant were the two words I heard most often when I visited Paris. They seemed to be the standard judgements for situations typically arising in tourist season. :p – Luke Sawczak Mar 09 '17 at 15:00
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    Yes gerbax is from gerber, bad slang for to puke. – Frank Mar 09 '17 at 15:14
  • @jlliagre - did you find other meanings for gerbax? – Frank Mar 09 '17 at 15:16
  • No I didn't. That's precisely what you wrote. Thanks for teaching new vocabulary ;-) – jlliagre Mar 09 '17 at 16:20
  • @jlliagre - y-a-t'il d'autres mots d'un registre plus bas que dégueulasse, mais moins rare que gerbax? – Frank Mar 09 '17 at 16:27
  • Pas qui me viennent à l'esprit, non. À propos, disgusting et dégoûtant sont bien sûr apparentés; le probably n'est pas nécessaire. – jlliagre Mar 09 '17 at 17:24
  • Bon, je l'enlève. Je me méfie - il y a parfois de faux amis, et je n'ai pas vraiment vérifié. Si je n'ai pas fait de recherche, je me retranche facilement derrière un probably. – Frank Mar 09 '17 at 17:29
  • Je valide "gerbax" et j'ajoute que "dégueu" passe assez bien avec des enfants. – Teleporting Goat Apr 11 '17 at 00:40
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I would say that "dégueulasse" is not a swear word, but it is offensive, although it is commonly used in casual situations. It litterally comes from "dégueuler" which is the offensive word for "puke".

French has this concept of "gros mot" which covers vocabulary of a certain level that typically includes swearing, vulgarities, and rude or offensive words. "Dégueulasse" is not a swearing word but it is vulgar, so I would definitely label it as "gros mot". Like Frank said, kids would probably be reprimanded for using it.

Many words that end with the suffix "-asse" are pejorative at various levels: rêvasse (familiar), vinasse (slang for bad wine), tignasse, pétasse, pouffiasse (down right insulting), etc.

Julien Guertault
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  • Actually in some of those words -asse just indicates a female version of the noun, which is the most common use of that suffix. – Dmitry Grigoryev Mar 09 '17 at 13:19
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    @DmitryGrigoryev Turning a noun into feminine is definitely not the common use of that suffix. See -asse. – jlliagre Mar 09 '17 at 14:19
  • The dictionary indicates that in both words, "-asse" is indeed a pejorative suffix. See: http://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/petasse and http://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/poufiasse – Julien Guertault Mar 09 '17 at 14:27
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I wouldn't say this is a particularly offensive word, rather I consider it familiar language. It would certainly sound strange in an official speech, but I have heard this word in daily use and never noticed people being frowned upon for using it. Especially, pas dégueulasse is being used, meaning not bad at all.

Sure, the word does bear a negative connotation and can be used as offensive, especially if reinforced by constructs like gros dégueulasse or espèce de dégueu. But this is true of many words which are nevertheless appropriate in unofficial speech.

Dmitry Grigoryev
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