French Word of the Day: Facho
This French word might come up when debating politics.
Why do I need to know facho?
Because you might see this word on social media, or hear it screamed at a rally or protest in France.
What does it mean?
Facho - roughly pronounced fah-sho - sounds a bit like the abbreviated version of ‘for sure’ in English, but it has a pretty different meaning.
It's a shortened version of faciste (facist) and it's used in a colloquial way as an insult - it’s a pretty common word used on the internet (and in real life) to denounce supporters of far-right politics.
Because the word has become more popular over time - especially in online debates - some people might use it when criticising a person they see as holding extremist views, even if they do not fit the definition for ‘fascist’ in the classical sense.
In this context it might be more used as 'something that a person with left-wing politics disagrees with'.
It is, however, almost exclusively used in a political context - unlike in English where you might see phrases like 'grammar Nazi' or 'body fascist' to mean people are particularly inflexible about a topic.
The colloquial word facho has also given rise to the expression fachosphère, which refers to posts or areas of the internet that attract far-right people.
Use it like this
C'est un vrai facho, ce con. Inutile d'essayer de le raisonner. - He's a real fascist, that idiot. There's no point in trying to reason with him.
Mec j'ai pas envie d'aller voir Bac Nord. Trop facho pour moi. - Bro, I don’t want to go see the movie Bac Nord. It’s too far-right for me.
Elle a qualifié Éric Zemmour de facho sur Twitter, mais il l'a ignorée. - She called Eric Zemmour a fascist on Twitter, but he ignored her.
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Why do I need to know facho?
Because you might see this word on social media, or hear it screamed at a rally or protest in France.
What does it mean?
Facho - roughly pronounced fah-sho - sounds a bit like the abbreviated version of ‘for sure’ in English, but it has a pretty different meaning.
It's a shortened version of faciste (facist) and it's used in a colloquial way as an insult - it’s a pretty common word used on the internet (and in real life) to denounce supporters of far-right politics.
Because the word has become more popular over time - especially in online debates - some people might use it when criticising a person they see as holding extremist views, even if they do not fit the definition for ‘fascist’ in the classical sense.
In this context it might be more used as 'something that a person with left-wing politics disagrees with'.
It is, however, almost exclusively used in a political context - unlike in English where you might see phrases like 'grammar Nazi' or 'body fascist' to mean people are particularly inflexible about a topic.
The colloquial word facho has also given rise to the expression fachosphère, which refers to posts or areas of the internet that attract far-right people.
Use it like this
C'est un vrai facho, ce con. Inutile d'essayer de le raisonner. - He's a real fascist, that idiot. There's no point in trying to reason with him.
Mec j'ai pas envie d'aller voir Bac Nord. Trop facho pour moi. - Bro, I don’t want to go see the movie Bac Nord. It’s too far-right for me.
Elle a qualifié Éric Zemmour de facho sur Twitter, mais il l'a ignorée. - She called Eric Zemmour a fascist on Twitter, but he ignored her.
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