enfirouaper

French

Alternative forms

enfirouâper

Etymology

Originally enfifrewâper, a nonce word coined in the Montreal newspaper Le Vrai Canard, in August, 1879. From Parisian slang word enfifrer (“to bugger (sodomize); to dupe”) + another verb, perhaps rouâper, a Québecois variant of râper (“to grate”).^[1]

According to a widely accepted popular etymology (which has even been taken up by a number of reference books), the word comes from English in fur wrapped, but this phrase is almost nonexistent in English,^[2] not to mention that the expected phonological change would result in something like *enfirapper.^[3]

Pronunciation

Audio: (file)
Audio (Canada): (file)

Verb

enfirouaper

(transitive) to scam, swindle, or trick someone [from late 19th c.]

Conjugation

Conjugation of enfirouaper (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	compound	avoir + past participle
infinitive	simple	enfirouaper
present participle or gerund¹	simple	enfirouapant /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pɑ̃/
present participle or gerund¹	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		enfirouapé /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	enfirouape /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwap/	enfirouapes /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwap/	enfirouape /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwap/	enfirouapons /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pɔ̃/	enfirouapez /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pe/	enfirouapent /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwap/
	imperfect	enfirouapais /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pɛ/	enfirouapais /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pɛ/	enfirouapait /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pɛ/	enfirouapions /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pjɔ̃/	enfirouapiez /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pje/	enfirouapaient /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pɛ/
	past historic²	enfirouapai /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pe/	enfirouapas /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pa/	enfirouapa /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pa/	enfirouapâmes /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pam/	enfirouapâtes /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pat/	enfirouapèrent /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pɛʁ/
	future	enfirouaperai /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pʁe/	enfirouaperas /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pʁa/	enfirouapera /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pʁa/	enfirouaperons /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pʁɔ̃/	enfirouaperez /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pʁe/	enfirouaperont /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pʁɔ̃/
	conditional	enfirouaperais /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pʁɛ/	enfirouaperais /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pʁɛ/	enfirouaperait /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pʁɛ/	enfirouaperions /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pə.ʁjɔ̃/	enfirouaperiez /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pə.ʁje/	enfirouaperaient /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior²	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	enfirouape /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwap/	enfirouapes /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwap/	enfirouape /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwap/	enfirouapions /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pjɔ̃/	enfirouapiez /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pje/	enfirouapent /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwap/
(simple tenses)	imperfect²	enfirouapasse /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pas/	enfirouapasses /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pas/	enfirouapât /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pa/	enfirouapassions /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pa.sjɔ̃/	enfirouapassiez /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pa.sje/	enfirouapassent /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
(compound tenses)	pluperfect²	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	~~nous~~	~~vous~~	–
simple		—	enfirouape /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwap/	—	enfirouapons /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pɔ̃/	enfirouapez /ɑ̃.fi.ʁwa.pe/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
¹ The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
² In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

References

^ Bovet, L. (2011). "Trouver l’origine, oui, mais la vraie...." Québec français, (163), 96–98.[1]; Thibeault, André. "Ne vous laisser pas enfirouâper par de fausses étymologies!" Cap-aux-Diamants, (96), 29–32[2]
^ See Google Books results for "in fur wrapped", in which "in fur wrapped" appears only in adjectival use ("in fur-wrapped") and etymologies of "enfirouaper"
^ Interview with Anne-Marie Beaudoin-Bégin, Québec Réveille[3]