Today in our ABCs of French slang, we’re on la lettre ‘J.‘

“J comme…” (“J as in…”)

* Je-m’en-foutisme:
In his book “The Devil in France – My Encounter with Him in the Summer of 1940” (during the Nazi invasion of France, that is), le dramaturge (playwright) Lion Feuchtwanger defines Je-m’en-foutisme as “an attitude toward life that may be somewhat inadequately translated as ‘I-don’t-give-a-damnism.'” He further identifies with with “the Devil of Unthoughtfulness, of Sloth in good-will, of Convention, of Routine, the very Devil to whom the French have given the motto, “je m’en fous”—“I don’t give a damn.”   To adopt a “je-m’en-foutiste” behavior, so to speak, is to be a “je-m’en-foutiste.”

* Je-Sais-Tout:
To be un monsieur je-sais-tout or a madame je-sais-tout is to be a “know-it-all.” You can also say “un gros malin“, which has the sense of a “smart alec.”

* Jetons:
It usually comes in the expression “foutre les jetons“, which means “to give the freaks”, “to give the chills”, or “to give the jitters” to someone.
In another expression, namely “faux jeton”, if you remember from the letter ‘F’ of the ABC, we said that it literally means a “fake token”, and standing for a hypocritical or a disingenious person, a “fake”, or a “phoney.”

Pour rappel (as a reminder), if you have missed them, here are les liens (the links) to the previous posts of le B.A.-BA de l’argot (the ABC of French Slang), each corresponding to a letter of the alphabet.