métèque
French edit
Etymology edit
Learned borrowing from Latin metoecus, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek μέτοικος (métoikos).
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
métèque m or f by sense (plural métèques)
- (historical) metic (resident alien who did not have the rights of a citizen and who paid a tax for the right to live there)
- (derogatory) wop, sinister foreigner
- 1969, “Le Métèque”, in Georges Moustaki (lyrics), Le Métèque, performed by Georges Moustaki:
- Avec ma gueule de métèque / De juif errant, de pâtre grec / Et mes cheveux aux quatre vents
- With my woggish face / Like a wandering Jew's, or a Greek shepherd's / And my windswept hair
Descendants edit
- → Romanian: metec
Further reading edit
- “métèque”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.