What Does This Mean?

ouf

[ SLANG ][ MULTILINGUAL NATIVE ]

FORCE: Gen Z BrainrotUNIVERSE: French Verlan / Youth SlangCLUSTER: french_verlan

French slang adjective and noun meaning crazy, which in youth speech also works as praise for something amazing or hard to believe (« c'est ouf », « un truc de ouf »). It is usually invariable. This entry covers the verlan sense; the unrelated standard interjection « ouf ! » expressing relief is a different, much older word.

REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE

"Le concert d'hier était ouf, on a chanté pendant deux heures."

LORE & ORIGIN

Wiktionnaire records two separate words spelled « ouf »: an onomatopoeic interjection of relief attested from the 16th century, and an adjective and noun that are verlan of « fou » (crazy), labelled familiar. It gives the examples « ce type est trop ouf » (crazy) and « le concert était ouf ! » (great), and the derivatives « de ouf » and « oufissime ». The date of the verlan sense is not given, so no dated first use is documented.

FIRST SEEN

Unknown (no dated first use of the verlan sense is documented; the relief interjection is a separate word attested from the 16th century)

PEAK ERA (EDITORIAL)

2010s to 2020s, French verlan and youth speech

CURRENT STATUS

Mainstream Slang

EQUIVALENT CONCEPTS IN OTHER LANGUAGES

Español es-ESno fixed local term →Français fr-FRouf →日本語 ja-JPno fixed local term →한국어 ko-KRno fixed local term →Português pt-BRno fixed local term →中文 zh-CNno fixed local term →

AURA IMPACT ⓘ

+1 AURA

TREND STATUS

→ STEADY

EDITORIAL ESTIMATE

CULTURE CATEGORY

[ SLANG ][ MULTILINGUAL NATIVE ]

RELATED TERMS

MENTIONS OVER TIME

DOCUMENTED SINCE

Unknown (no dated first use of the verlan sense is documented; the relief interjection is a separate word attested from the 16th century)

NOW

Radar observation data not yet available for this term.

TOP PLATFORMS

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