Describing the usage, meaning, and users of the French neologism ‘bolos’, this study presents the results of a quantitative investigation carried out on a sample of more than 1200 francophone speakers within the age bracket of 10-30 years of age. The extension of usage of this insult from suburban slang into commonly used youth slang took place between 2006 and 2008 ; we can thus speak about a passage of an identity-marking neologism of a sociological type to a neologism which marks identity with respect to one’s age.

Adolescence, 2009, T. 27, n°4, pp. 931-940.