Le beauf (pronounce ‘bohf’) is somewhere between the American redneck and the English pikey. In French imagery, le beauf drinks beer, wears wife beaters, watches soccer endlessly and vacations in his RV.
In Paris, the definition is a bit boader.
For the Parisian, every person he does not know is a beauf.
Yet, Parisians are beings of refinement. Therefore, they kindly split beaufs into two subcategories: les beaufs and les gros beaufs.
Le gros beauf is quite visibly a beauf. He’s the type of beauf most non-Parisians would also call a beauf. But seen from the highness of Parisian culture, brutal and ugly adjective ‘gros’ is a necessary qualifier. Le gros beauf has long passed the boundaries of Parisian acceptability.
One may think being a beauf ranks you higher up than being a gros beauf. It is a mistake. While the gros beauf is completely oblivious about the concept of beauf, le beauf thinks he’s not a beauf. He therefore thinks he’s better than what he actually is. While, just like fools were entertaining to kings, gros beaufs can be entertaining to Parisians, beaufs are to be considered with contempt. Simply because one of their visible characteristics does not agree with the Parisian’s vision of good taste. Some things Parisians cannot just let slide.
Calling people beaufs is a wonderful thing for Parisians. It allows them to assert conveniently their superiority while not going through the trouble of enduring a painstaking analysis that might lead them to interrogations about themselves or others. Indeed, the beauf verdict is an immediate one. Some beaufs are pushing it and Parisians won’t get much credit for pointing them out: “White socks? Quel beauf!”.
Too easy.
Superior perceived social status is acquired by mocking habits and attitudes that are typical of upper class or even better - rich people. “He’s spending the weekend in Deauville? Can’t believe it, quel beauf!”, “Is he really driving a Hummer? Quel gros beauf!”. By striking his audience with an unsuspected beauf designation, the Parisian scores serious social points: “Did he really take his nephew to Disney Land? Quel beauf!”. The ultimate goal is to make all the people surrounding the Parisian wonder if, compared to him, they are not ultimately complete beaufs.
It is Parisian wisdom that one is always someone else’s beauf. Yet, the Parisian can never tolerate the threatening shadow of beaufitude upon his head. When one of the things he says, wears or does gets him to be called a beauf by one of his fellow Parisians (who else?), disdain is the appropriate answer. By disdainfully calling upon self-derision or edginess, not only is the Parisian washed off of the attack but he pours the beaufitude back onto his initial offender.
The beauty of living in Paris is that beauf is a concept declined to non human things. Destinations, activities, pieces of clothing, music, decoration, books… almost all things can be beauf in Paris…
… thus making Parisians feel good about themselves in all situations.
Useful tip: At a costume party, amuse your Parisian friends by opting for a ‘beauf’ costume.
Sound like a Parisian: « C’est vraiment des gros beaufs ces Américains…»
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
Tags: beauf · behavior · redneck15 Comments
15 responses so far ↓
Pas très gentil ça!!!! Americans are not bofs!!!!!Ah,ah, ah!
Ah, un beauf! What is the distinction between un beauf and un plouc? I’m still learning.
Aspiring grammarian that I am, I was wondering if there is a feminine form — une beauve? — or does it just refer to the male species? (heh heh)
I don’t know if beauf comes from verlan, but, come to think of it, how about a post on Parisians and verlan?
Thanks for more wonderful insight!
Un plouc is un plouc whether being beauf is a way of life ( IMHO)
You should write something about the fact that Parisian ( and also French actually) are more interessted in American Politics than American theyselves.
themselves… Parisians…
While living a year in Paris as une petite americaine, someone left a message on my apt. answering machine saying, “Quel beauf!” in response to my outgoing message in french and then in english. I knew then that it was an insult, but never knew the true meaning of that insult until now. Thanks!
Thing is: all Parisians are beaufs…
(I’m a non-Parisian French stranded in Paris by the way)
-Polly: “plouc” is quite old fashioned and is the terms city people used to call rural people.
It doesn’t have a feminine form, you’ll say “Elle est beauf!” “C’est une grosse beauf!”
The word itself is not verlan and comes from “Beau-frère” (brother in law), I’m not exactly sure how it took that meaning.
mais dis donc Olivier il y a doublement du talent ici.
des sujets originaux et fun et un bilinguisme étonnant
bravo monsieur
sorry pour le reatrd mais en ce moment Style and the City et le projet qui en découle me prend beaucoup de temps
Tu es parfaitement bilingue ?
tu as vécu aux USA ou en angleterre ?
au plaisir de te lire
je serai plus réactif next time, promis
et bienvenu dans mes liens
Kamel LAHMADI
STYLE AND THE CITY . COM - PARIS
I imagine you’ve heard Renaud’s song ‘mon beauf’…. gives quite a good description too!
Hi Guys!!
Anne: just quoting…
Polly: Agree with David all the way. Good idea for le verlan
Polly/Camille: Also, for the records, you know how many villages in Brittany start with ‘Plou’. Well, originally, le plouc was the rural, clueless breton that just arrived in Paris. So I guess it has more of a rural beauf connotation. But it’s a bit passé a word these days.
Emily: You can’t make this up, right ?!!
Davis: Thx!
Kamel: Merci pour ces gentillesses. J’ai vécu un peu en Californie, ce qui a sans doute un peu aidé. Même si, il faut bien le reconnaître, les Californiens ne sont pas des orfèvres de l’anglais…
Lolo: Other beaufs can be found populating another Renaud song: “Mon HLM”
So is Plouc for Beauf the equivalent of ” C’est bath” for ” c’est hype” ?
having such a conversation is a morning pleasure
Being interested in language and morphology myself, I am inclined to wonder if this is from whence came the Australian word, ‘boofhead’, which basically means stupid person. My apologies for the last sentence; correct grammar frequently leads to somewhat convoluted phrasing. To be fair, Fiona speaking leads to somewhat convoluted phrasing as well…
My Google search only returned with, ‘Aucun résultat trouvé pour “morphology of boofhead”‘. I suppose I shall have to leave this important question for another day.
[...] If you watch a foreign film in V.F. (version française), you are a beauf. [...]
Thanks for writing this.
In Ireland the word ‘buff’ is used to describe what an American would call a hick or a redneck.
Interesting to know.