Poilu

The Poilu, painting by Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen , 1917

Poilu ( po̯aˈlyː , plural: Poilus ) is a French slang term for a French front-line soldier of the First World War . It corresponds roughly to the German term Landser for a simple soldier.

The word comes from the French poil (hair) with the adjective poilu (hairy) and literally means “the hairy one” or “the hairy one”. In colloquial usage in the period before the First World War, it referred to an energetic, brave man. During the First World War, the term was used to designate French soldiers.

Popular explanations are linked to the word meaning "hairy". The name is said to result from the fact that the supply of water in the trenches was inadequate during combat operations and the soldiers therefore could not shave during the deployment.

As in many armies, the Poilus of the First World War developed their own language with their own specific terms, some of which found their way into French colloquial language, for example pinard = cheap red wine, gnôle = schnapps.

Henri Barbusse described in his novel Le Feu (original edition 1916, German Das Feuer , 1918) very vividly the miserable living conditions of the Poilus during the First World War.

The anti-war board game Les Poilus , a cooperative game for two to five players, ages 10+, by Fabien Riffaud and Juan Rodriguez, published by Sweet Games, landed on the recommendation list for Kennerspiel des Jahres in 2017 . It implements the trench warfare history of the First World War in a replayable form.

See also

• Doughboy : outdated, slang term for a US soldier
• GI : common, slang term for a US soldier
• Landser : slang term for a German soldier
• Tommy : slang term for a British soldier
• Mehmetçik : slang term for a Turkish soldier

literature

• François Déchelette: L'argot des poilus. Dictionnaire humoristique et philologique du langage des soldats de la Grande Guerre de 1914 . Éditions de Paris, Paris 2004, ISBN 2-84621-060-8 .
• Pierre Miquel : Les poilus. La France sacrifiée . Plon, Paris 2000, ISBN 2-259-18872-9 ( Terre humaine ).
• François Pairault: Images de poilus. La Grande Guerre en cartes postales . Tallandier, Paris 2002, ISBN 2-8473-4028-9 .

Web links

Commons : Poilus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Meaning of the word and etymology in CNRTL: poilu (French)
2. ↑ Anti-war game "Les Poilus" takes players back to the time of the First World War , accessed on January 27, 2018.