You might already know the French word clochard…
Why do I need to know clochardisation?
You might come across this French word in political debates, and it’s an example of a growing trend in French.
What does it mean?
The French word clochardisation, pronounced kloh-shar-dee-zah-syon (listen here), literally translates to “becoming like a clochard” or “becoming like a tramp/beggar”.
Now let’s break it down.
The French word clochard is a slang and pejorative term used to describe a homeless person.
The suffix -isation means “the process of becoming” or “the transformation into” – which can also be seen in both English and French words like modernisation, globalisation, urbanisation.
Clochardisation thus refers to the process by which a person, place, or area falls into poverty, neglect, or social decline.
It generally implies a perceived deterioration in safety, maintenance or quality of life. It could even be used to describe a budget that has suffered dramatic cuts, similar to being ‘beggared’ in English.
Because it derives from the word clochard, many consider it a loaded or stigmatising term, and it frequently appears in political debates about urban policy.
More common, and more neutral, terms to describe homeless people are sans-abri (literally ‘without shelter’) or sans domicile fixe (without fixed abode), which is frequently shortened to SDF in headlines or casual conversation.
The French language is especially fond of adding ‘isation’ onto nouns to create new words – eg smicardisation refers to le smic (minimum wage) and therefore the process of becoming a minimum wage/low paying economy.
Likewise uberisation refers to the ride-share company Uber, and therefore means the process of becoming a gig economy with short-term, unstable work and fewer rights and protections for workers.
Examples in the French press
Affaire Lyhanna : le budget de la justice victime d’une « clochardisation » ? Ce que disent les chiffres et ce qu’ils ne disent pas (Le Parisien) – Lyhanna case: is the justice budget being ‘run into the ground’? What the figures show – and what they don’t
«On a des stages de clochardisation» : quand les espions de la DGSE se font passer pour des sans-abri (CNEWS) – “We have ‘homelessness training courses’”: French spies pose as homeless people
La clochardisation : un “exil” sans retour ? (Philosophie Magazine) – Homelessness: a ‘banishment’ with no return?
