A variation of Rascist (not racist), a new word combining Russian and fascist, its use is widespread in English-language content from Ukraine. The spelling “rachyst” is a French homophone of the English pronunciation, the trailing “y” is the plural form as in the Italian “fascisti”, where the word originated. Spelling it with “y” is probably just an artistic touch, or to make it look more foreign.
I’m sure many English people have never heard about “Rascist”, either. It’s just my interpretation that seems to make sense (knowing a little French). But if you have another take on it, I’m certainly curious.
The website Desk Russie also corroborates my interpretation.
The article you linked probably does not exactly say what you think it does. It’s just a professor in geography and linguistics reporting on an ukrainian neologism, adapting it to french audiences for phonetical convenience, it does not hint at any integration in the french language, quite the opposite, and that’s coming from a specialist in the field. While the neologism is interesting and very useful, this is definitely a very niche use among french people, as far as I’m aware. That being said, TIL thanks to you. The more you know.
What I should have mentioned earlier, that leaves me scratching my head the most, is that the message makes very little sense. It won’t be legible for anyone who doesn’t speak french (barring a couple of words), so it’s not meant to be read by russian people. What’s more, “de Paris avec amour” is the literal translation of “from Paris with love”, which sounds very natural in english but not in french, at all, and sounds like something that what somebody who doesn’t speak french would get out of google translate or something. The only way I can make it make sense is that this would be entirely manufactured for social media, which tracks with the first impression I had that this image was manipulated and the text added in photoshop or something. This whole thing is very bizarre, hence my incredulous reaction at the premise of it being french at all.
Hope that clarifies things a bit, and explains why I was instantly weirded out.
Don’t get me wrong, the rascists (may as well adopt this nifty neologism now haha o/) can, indeed, go to hell and stay there, and french people massively support Ukraine, but it’s still useful to be mindful of what’s shared on social media, no matter how much it supports our positions or not. Probably now more than ever, with AI generative models becoming an increasingly scary problem.
Wow, thanks a lot for the elaborate reply. My French certainly isn’t advanced enough (two years in school) to evaluate the finer points of such messages. But to me this makes a lot sense:
Yes, it is certainly a niche application, and not a mainstream French word. The same goes for the English equivalent, “Rascist”. It is almost exclusively used by Ukrainian troops, and in the same sense as the article explains the use of the French “rachyst”, denoting Russian troops engaged in the attack on Ukraine and everyone behind them, but specifically not the ordinary Russian citizen.
Writing messages like these on bombs and missiles has a long tradition, at least since World War II, so I think it’s an actual caption on the actual missile. Showing it off on social media is a large part of it these days, but it is also done for boosting morale of the troops deploying the weapons, or by request of family and friends of casualties, certainly not for the Russian recipients to appreciate. It is also quite likely that it was indeed translated with the help of Google translate, creating the “un-French” phrasing.
Out of curiosity, how would you as a native speaker make a more fitting translation of “from Paris with love”? I do English/German translations as well as simultaneous interpretation at conferences, so I am very familiar with the intricacies of phrasing and deeper meanings and subtle connotations of idiomatic expressions, so I can totally feel your sentiment of “it’s not wrong, but you would never say it like that in French.”
So if I’m not mistaken, “from Paris with love” has a bit of a dated flavor to it, right? An expression with a similar sentiment and “flavor” would probably be “bons baisers de Paris” which would have that “I’m using elevated old timey language ironically to be sassy” vibe in that context. Something to that effect. Hope that makes sense.
A variation of Rascist (not racist), a new word combining Russian and fascist, its use is widespread in English-language content from Ukraine. The spelling “rachyst” is a French homophone of the English pronunciation, the trailing “y” is the plural form as in the Italian “fascisti”, where the word originated. Spelling it with “y” is probably just an artistic touch, or to make it look more foreign.
Where did you hear about that? Because I’m French and that’s news to me lol
I’m sure many English people have never heard about “Rascist”, either. It’s just my interpretation that seems to make sense (knowing a little French). But if you have another take on it, I’m certainly curious.
The website Desk Russie also corroborates my interpretation.
The article you linked probably does not exactly say what you think it does. It’s just a professor in geography and linguistics reporting on an ukrainian neologism, adapting it to french audiences for phonetical convenience, it does not hint at any integration in the french language, quite the opposite, and that’s coming from a specialist in the field. While the neologism is interesting and very useful, this is definitely a very niche use among french people, as far as I’m aware. That being said, TIL thanks to you. The more you know.
What I should have mentioned earlier, that leaves me scratching my head the most, is that the message makes very little sense. It won’t be legible for anyone who doesn’t speak french (barring a couple of words), so it’s not meant to be read by russian people. What’s more, “de Paris avec amour” is the literal translation of “from Paris with love”, which sounds very natural in english but not in french, at all, and sounds like something that what somebody who doesn’t speak french would get out of google translate or something. The only way I can make it make sense is that this would be entirely manufactured for social media, which tracks with the first impression I had that this image was manipulated and the text added in photoshop or something. This whole thing is very bizarre, hence my incredulous reaction at the premise of it being french at all.
Hope that clarifies things a bit, and explains why I was instantly weirded out.
Don’t get me wrong, the rascists (may as well adopt this nifty neologism now haha o/) can, indeed, go to hell and stay there, and french people massively support Ukraine, but it’s still useful to be mindful of what’s shared on social media, no matter how much it supports our positions or not. Probably now more than ever, with AI generative models becoming an increasingly scary problem.
Wow, thanks a lot for the elaborate reply. My French certainly isn’t advanced enough (two years in school) to evaluate the finer points of such messages. But to me this makes a lot sense:
Yes, it is certainly a niche application, and not a mainstream French word. The same goes for the English equivalent, “Rascist”. It is almost exclusively used by Ukrainian troops, and in the same sense as the article explains the use of the French “rachyst”, denoting Russian troops engaged in the attack on Ukraine and everyone behind them, but specifically not the ordinary Russian citizen.
Writing messages like these on bombs and missiles has a long tradition, at least since World War II, so I think it’s an actual caption on the actual missile. Showing it off on social media is a large part of it these days, but it is also done for boosting morale of the troops deploying the weapons, or by request of family and friends of casualties, certainly not for the Russian recipients to appreciate. It is also quite likely that it was indeed translated with the help of Google translate, creating the “un-French” phrasing.
Out of curiosity, how would you as a native speaker make a more fitting translation of “from Paris with love”? I do English/German translations as well as simultaneous interpretation at conferences, so I am very familiar with the intricacies of phrasing and deeper meanings and subtle connotations of idiomatic expressions, so I can totally feel your sentiment of “it’s not wrong, but you would never say it like that in French.”
So if I’m not mistaken, “from Paris with love” has a bit of a dated flavor to it, right? An expression with a similar sentiment and “flavor” would probably be “bons baisers de Paris” which would have that “I’m using elevated old timey language ironically to be sassy” vibe in that context. Something to that effect. Hope that makes sense.