Beur


Beur, or alternatively rebeu, is a colloquial term, sometimes considered pejorative, in French to designate European-born people whose parents or grandparents are immigrants from the Maghreb. The equivalent term for a female beur is a beurette. However, the term beurette is condemned and criticized by several anti-racist organizations because of the xenophobic and degrading connotation that this word has taken on over the decades.
The term rebeu is neither applicable to females nor does it have a female version.

Use

The word beur was coined using verlan for the word arabe, which means Arabic or Arab in French. Since the late 1990s, many young people have used the twice-verlanised term rebeu as a synonym. This term is now the dominant term used by the younger generations. The word beurette, the female version of beur, is created by adding the -ette female suffix in French. In French many slang words are created by simply reversing the syllables in a word and then reading the result.