A visiting nephew from the States hell-bent on perfecting his French by learning all of the popular slang, vulgar expressions, and five-letter words that he can, snapped this photo of a light-hearted t-shirt in the window of a Pigalle boutique. A Larousse dictionary will tell you that "bordélique" describes either someone who creates disorder, or a place where disorder reigns. It is derived from the word "bordel" which is a vulgar term for a house of prostitution. Bordel itself is often used very familiarly to designate that something is a big mess, or "un grand désordre." The Larousse provides a very typical example of its use in this phrase: Range un peu ce bordel!
Range un peu ce bordel!
Tidy up this mess a bit!
photo by Ian Byrd
©2016 P.B. Lecron
