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boche

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Etymology and origin of the French word boche

Confidence
Disputed
Formation
Clipping
First attested
1862 Metz, in têtes de boches More words from the 19th century
Ultimate origin
French alboche

Pronunciation

Forms

boche m or f by sense (plural boches)[1]

Etymology

The origin is disputed.[2][3] The word is first found in the popular phrase tête de boche, in the plural, at Metz in 1862, and then in printers' slang (1874).[2][3] The Grand Robert and the Petit Robert take the word, meaning “German”, as shortened, from French alboche (“German”), influenced by the phrase, read as “wooden head”;[4][5] That form (before 1870) is a slang alteration of allemand, through Allemoche, a form of the east, or after the phrase, or after ⟨-boche⟩, which had become a kind of slang suffix in words such as rigolboche (1860).[6][5][2][3] The TLFi and the DHLF give this as one of two choices; the other is that the sense “German” is a narrowing of the word as used in the phrase, meaning “hard head”, itself perhaps from caboche (“head”) with its first syllable dropped.[2][3] Bloch and Wartburg allow either source or a mixture of both.[7] The TLFi thinks a borrowing from Italian boccia (“bowl”) unlikely.[2] Wiktionary also mentions the German family name Bosch.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

At Metz in 1862 têtes de boches meant “hard heads”.[2][3] Boche alone meaning a German is found in June 1886, in army slang.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Before 1914 boche had both senses, “German” and, in the phrase, “hard head”;[3] French propaganda of the 1910s and of the war years, which painted the Germans as clumsy brutes, merged the two.[3] This explains the word's success from 1914 to 1950; it then fell out of use after the reconciliation of France and Germany in the 1950s, having already met less insulting rivals for the occupiers of 1941–1945, such as fritz, fridolin and schleu.[3] Delvau had recorded boche for a “bad lot” in the language of gallantry in 1866.[7][6]

English took Boche in 1914 for a German soldier.[8]

Timeline

  • 1862 – Têtes de boches is recorded at Metz.[2][3]
  • 1866 – Delvau records boche “bad lot”.[6][7]
  • 1874 – Tête de boche appears in printers' slang.[2]
  • 1886 – Boche “German” appears in army slang.[2][4]
  • 1887 – Verlaine uses it in the current sense.[6]
  • 1914 – The noun bocherie is formed;[3][8] English borrows Boche.[3][8]
  • 1950s – The word falls out of use.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (dated, familiar, derogatory) A German.[5][2][1]

Adjective

  1. (dated, derogatory) German: les tranchées boches.[5][2]

Word family

  • bocherie

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  7. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
Cite this entry

“Boche.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/boche. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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