Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun, plural Boche, Boches [bosh, bawsh] /bɒʃ, bɔʃ/.
- Older Slang: Disparaging and Offensive. a contemptuous term used to refer to a German, especially a German soldier in World War I or II.
noun derogatory, slang (esp in World Wars I and II)
- a German, esp a German soldier
- the Boche (usually functioning as plural) Germans collectively, esp German soldiers regarded as the enemy
1914, from French slang, “rascal,” of unknown origin, applied by soldiers to Germans in World War I. Another theory traces it to French Allemand “German,” in eastern French Al(le)moche, altered contemptuously to Alboche by association with caboche, a slang word for “head,” literally “cabbage” (cf. tete de boche, French for “German” in an 1887 slang dictionary). All the French terms are no older than mid-19c.