"Tu vas en baver mon coco"

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on July 21, 2012 at 5:24pm

It is new to me too but I would guess that  ,since "baver"  means to "drool" then they are saying "you are going to  drool over it,  coco!"

Or ,since "baver" means "to foam at the mouth " as well maybe  it is "This is going to hurt (you) !" or "This is going to make you mad!"

Or something I haven't thought of!

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Permalink Reply by Christine on July 22, 2012 at 3:20pm

"En baver" means to have a hard time, so it means that his life is going to get difficult for some reason. "Je vais t'en faire baver" would mean that *you* are going to make his life difficult.

"Mon coco"  can be something a mother says to her child (-> "mon petit coco"), but in this case, it's a bit pejorative, though I can't exactly say why, and can't think of a particular meaning. Maybe because it makes the other personn appear childish, but I couldn't say.

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EducatorPermalink Reply by stu harris on July 22, 2012 at 6:55pm

Probably mon petit coco is an ironic use intending to convey its precise opposite, equivalent to the English (note: not American) use of sweetheart or sunshine in a context in which the speaker feels anything but sweet toward the other person.

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Permalink Reply by Christine on July 22, 2012 at 10:47pm

It's actually liste as having both senses (friendly and unfriendly), but I have no idea where it comes from, though a website suggested something to do with a cock (but it didn't seem very reliable).

In the past, it could also stand for a horse ("Hue, coco!") or the throat, as well as for eau-de-vie or, closer to us, cocaine.

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Permalink Reply by Dave Clithero on July 23, 2012 at 3:50pm

Many thanks for everyone's contributions. A number of French speakers had already offered me similar suggestions. Nevertheless I was sceptical. If "mon coco" were vocative, I'd have expected it to be preceded by a comma. Yet it almost never is. I didn't think the French would be so casual about punctuation, but it looks like I was wrong.

Clearly the expression is some sort of cliché or catchphrase. However, I find that "baver le coco" appears on the Web almost as frequently as "baver mon coco". I'm getting the impression that "mon coco" (with second person singular) tends to be contemptuously familiar, whereas "le coco" (with third person singular) is genuinely affectionate.

Is "dear one" the English equivalent of "coco" in this context? "My dear" ironically, "my little dear" for a kiddie etc.

From an equestrian blog: "Pour renforcer l'action de ma jambe droite ( il coince un peu ) je m'aide de mon stick pour bien avoir son arrière main. Il en a bien baver le coco, le mors étais [sic] plein de salive."

Since the last clause seems to be "the bit was full of saliva", I'm tempted to ignore the "en" in the preceding one and translate it as "He really foamed at the mouth, the dear". Or is it "He really had a hard time of it, the dear"?

Elsewhere there's a charming photograph of horse and foal captioned "le fils d[']Apache[,] il nous en fait baver le coco" - "Apache's son, he gives us a hard time, the dear"?

 

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Permalink Reply by Christine on July 24, 2012 at 8:18am

Well, "coco" was already a word for "horse" a long time ago, so in this case, I think it's rather literal. :-) Although the people writing that could have forgotten it and use it in a "dear" sense...

If it was about a man, it would all depend of the context, because "coco" can be either affectionate or contemptuous (both "le" and "mon"). It can be hard to say if the case isn't clear (mother to her child vs obvious contempt) and you can't hear the tone of voice used, because it could also be used ironically... in an ironical way, more teasing than really unfriendly.

About the ponctuation, I guess it depends if you make a pause when you say it. If you don't, you won't necessarily think about the comma.

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Permalink Reply by Cath on July 24, 2012 at 4:28am

I would translated like this : you are going to get tough time, buddy !

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Permalink Reply by Julio Cézar on April 5, 2013 at 6:28pm

Salut!,

I am from Biarritz (South France near Bordeaux) , and when I read this I thought to myself I need to help this man out! This means "It's going to be hard/annoying for you" =) we use it in all forms of expressions. Including some more vulgar than others. 

Merci,

Julio Cézar

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Permalink Reply by Vedas on April 11, 2013 at 5:17pm

Hello everybody,

To start with I wouldn't say that the expression is vulgar but rather colloquial .

Depending on the context it can be friendly (a warning) or threatening.

Tu vas en baver : you're  going to have a rough time, imagine a friend of yours is going to have a surgery you could say to him : tu vas en baver

Elle n'a pas fini d'en baver avec son fils: she hasn't seen the last of her troubles with her son yet.

Now coco can mean darling,buster, mate...context as always is very important

toi mon coco tu vas voir: you've got it coming to you

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