métèque

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin metoecus, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek μέτοικος (métoikos).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /me.tɛk/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

métèque m or f by sense (plural métèques)

1. (historical) metic (resident alien who did not have the rights of a citizen and who paid a tax for the right to live there)
2. (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

• → Romanian: metec

Further reading

• “métèque”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.