French Word of the Day: Barjo
Because you might hear young people say it – and you can't be left wondering what it means.
What does it mean?
Barjo – pronounced bar-zho – and sometimes spelt
barjot
is a slang term for crazy, or insane.
It comes from
France's secret 'back-to-front' slang language Verlan
version of
jobard
– which means 'fool' or 'simpleton'.
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Usually the inverted verlan version makes a word more slangy and informal, but in this case both the forwards and the backwards version are quite colloquial and therefore not used in formal situations.
The more common term for crazy is
fou/folle
- as in the classic Astérix catchphrase '
Ils sont fous ces romains
' - rendered in the English version as 'these Romans are crazy'.
The version of
barjo
with the 't' ending is believed to be linked to Admiral Pierre Barjot, who was in charge of French naval aviation during the 1956 Suez Crisis.
Use it like this
Il est complètement barjo
– He's completely crazy
Elles sont un peu barjos
– They're a bit crazy.
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