adjective General Slang

Chanme

/ʃɑ̃me/ · adjective · slang

Verlan for 'mechant' (wicked) — flipped to mean awesome or sick, like English 'wicked'.

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Definitions

1

From the standard French 'mechant' (mean, wicked, nasty). Verlan inverts me-chant to chan-me. Like English 'wicked', it ironically came to mean great or awesome.

“Ce son est chanme! = This track is sick!”
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2

Can still carry the literal sense of mean or fierce depending on tone and context.

“Un regard chanme. = A fierce look.”
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3

Used to praise something impressive or high quality.

“Elle a des skills chanmes. = She's got wicked skills.”
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Chanme In A Sentence

La soiree etait chanmee, franchement.
T'as vu ses graphs? C'est chanme.
Il a sorti un freestyle chanme.

Origin & Usage

Banlieue verlan from 'mechant', mainstream since the 1990s. The flip from 'wicked/mean' to 'awesome' mirrors English slang where 'wicked', 'sick' and 'mean' all became compliments.

Variants chanmerchanme
Tags #verlan#french#argot#slang-terms#praise

People Also Ask

What does chanme mean?

It's verlan for 'mechant' (wicked) and, like English 'wicked', it usually means awesome or sick.

Does chanme ever mean 'mean'?

Yes — depending on tone it can keep the literal sense of fierce or nasty, but the praise sense is most common.

Where did chanme come from?

From verlan, the back-slang of the French banlieues, popular since the 1990s.

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