Décâlisse, tabarnak!
I witnessed an argument over an iPhone in a public place in Montréal yesterday where some colourful language was used…
A man in his 30s walked past a table where a man in his 60s was sitting. The older man was looking at his iPhone.
The younger man stopped about three metres away from the table where the older man was sitting and began to observe him intently. The older man didn’t like this, and he asked the younger man what exactly he was looking at.
That’s when the younger man explained that he had lost his iPhone in the area, and wanted to know if the iPhone the older man was using was really his own.
The older man got angry at the suggestion that he was using a lost or stolen phone. He then swore at the younger man telling him to get lost:
Décâlisse!
Go the fuck away!
The younger man asked if he could see the phone, and the older man swore at him again:
Décâlisse, tabarnak!
Go the fuck away, goddammit!
The younger man kept looking at the phone from where he was standing. He seemed pretty convinced that it might be his. He then challenged the older man by saying:
Tu viens avec moi. Tu veux parler fort? On va parler fort dehors.
You come with me. You wanna shout? We can go shout outside.
The older man just told the younger man where to go again:
DÉCÂLISSE!!!
The younger man then moved about seven metres away from the older man, wondering what he should do. After about a minute, he finally walked right up to the older man to take a really good look at the phone. After he looked, he backed off and said:
OK, c’est pas le mien. Tu vois? C’est pas compliqué. Je m’excuse.
OK, it’s not mine. You see? It’s not complicated. I’m sorry.
I don’t know who’s more to blame in this altercation!
Anecdote #1: Tabarnak is a crucial word in Québécois French. It is used frequently. Quebecers who travel to Cuba and Mexico are sometimes referred to as Los Tabarnacos. When I told this to the women (all francophones) at the hairdressing salon that I frequent, there were embarrassed giggles all around.
Anecdote #2: I was sent this email recently:
A group of British tourists decided to take in a Montreal Canadiens hockey game at the Bell Centre. They had a great time and enjoyed the speed and skill of the teams. After the game, they descended on the boutique to buy a Canadiens jersey with the name of the player that they heard the most while in the stands.
And what was the name of that player: TABARNAC
P.S: I have a pic, but cannot post it to this comment box.
Outside of Québec, tabarnak is practically emblematic of the French spoken here. Sometimes people who know only a few words of French still at least know tabarnak! You’ll see t-shirts in the tourist areas with this swear word on them.
OK, cette fois une question sur le français international: est-ce “dégage” (dans le reste de la francophonie) a la même sévérité que “décâlisse”? Et au Québec, en a-t-il moins?
P.S. Quant à moi, c’est le vieux monsieur qui a tort ici!
Dégage, c’est un usage familier qu’on pourrait traduire par «get lost», d’après moi. Pas très poli donc!
Décâlisse, par contre, c’est surtout «fuck off». Décâlisse me semble bien plus grossier que dégage.
Felix….wouldn’t “décolle” be another more familiar polite way of saying go away or take off. I hear this much more often then “dégage”….not necessarily directed at me 🙂
In fact, there’s an example of décoller on OffQc in #29 where the father from the show Les Parent tells his kids to “get away” from the television for a bit:
Ça va faire du bien de décoller de la tévé.
I talked about dégager in my other comment because Luke had a specific question about it.
There are other, more radical uses of “décâlisse”, in Quebec City : http://oreilletendue.com/2013/10/01/sacrer-a-lassemblee-nationale-les-seins-nus/
And here too:
https://offqc.com/2013/10/07/crucifix-decalisse-femen-at-the-assemblee-nationale-du-quebec-689/
La première fois que j’ai entendu dégage, il sortait de la bouche d’une petite française de 9 ans qui venait d’arriver en Californie à l’école de ma fille. On était les seules à lui fréquenter car elle ne parlait pas encore anglais… Elle a dit ‘Dégage’ sur les barres de la récré…. which I took to mean move over! (get out of the way). En tout cas, ma fille a compris. C’était pas ‘get lost’ car elle voulait être amies avec ma fille, mais elle voulait de la place à côte d’elle sur les barres. SO… I guess there are lots of interpretations. Thanks! I would never say Décâlisse. I recognize a religious object origine (câlisse) and therefore learned it is probably a swear word.
It will depend on the context. Dégager most often just means to free something of a hindrance. For example, if there’s snow in front of a door, you have to shovel it away in order to dégager la porte.