| Main form | maquereau |
| Transcribed form | |
| Pronunciation | |
| Grammatical description | noun, masculine |
| Strength | neutral / common slang |
| Translation | pimp |
| Literal translation | |
| Note | although the official word is "proxénète", noone but the cops and the courts uses it. A pimp is "un maquereau", and, when female, "une maquerelle", even "la mère maquerelle". Un maquereau is of course, literally, a fish (mackerel). See also "merlan" et "morue", to see how seafood impregnated French popular language, probably because fishmongers (particularly the female) were considered to have as colorful a language as mule drivers: "un langage de charretier" (a cart-driver's vulgar speech) is no better than "une langue de poissonière" (a female fishmonger's speech). |
You may also
browse pages with several entries in full