If I told you I added a “hashtag” to my Tweet or that I posted a “status update” on Facebook, you’d probably know what I meant. But what if I told you that I was a “wikipedian” or that my latest “vlog” was online? Would you know what I meant then? Maybe not!
Today, we use social media to make it easier to share content, collaborate and connect with people. But social media platforms have a language all their own, and if you don’t know it, using certain platforms can be a challenge.
Here’s a useful table that will help you understand the meanings of certain social media terms. The table also gives you the equivalent French term. So the next time you tweet in French, you can say you added “mots-clics” to your “gazouillis” instead of “j’ai tweeté des hashtags”!
| English term | French term | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| chatting | clavardage (masculine noun) | A real-time texting conversation between users over the Internet.1 |
| unfriend | désamicaliser; décopiner; amiradier |
To remove a person from your list of friends or contacts.1 |
| geotagging data | données de géomarquage (feminine plural noun) |
Information that associates a geographical location with photos, videos, messages, etc.1 |
| emoticon; smiley |
émoticône (feminine noun); binette (feminine noun); |
A symbol or an image that represents the mood of the person sending the message. |
| tag | étiquette (feminine noun) | A keyword added to a picture, video or text in order to classify its content or identify a person. Note: In French, the term used on Facebook is “identification.” |
| crowdsourcing | externalisation ouverte (feminine noun); externalisation à grande échelle (feminine noun) |
The practice of making use of the creativity, intelligence and expertise of Internet users to carry out a particular activity. |
| home timeline | fil d’actualités (masculine noun) |
On Twitter, the chronological stream of all the tweets from any accounts to which a user has subscribed.1 |
| news feed | fil de nouvelles (masculine noun) |
On Facebook, the centre column of a user’s homepage that contains status updates, videos, photos, etc. |
| twitterer; tweeter |
gazouilleur (masculine noun), gazouilleuse (feminine noun) |
A Twitter account holder who reads and posts tweets. |
| retweet; RT |
gazouillis partagé (masculine noun) |
On Twitter, a tweet that a user forwards to his or her followers. |
| status update | mise à jour de statut (feminine noun) |
A new post on your personal profile.1 Note: Term used on Facebook. |
| hashtag | mot-clic (masculine noun); mot-dièse (masculine noun) |
A keyword, a keyword string or a theme preceded by the pound or number sign and used to index and categorize content. |
| handle; nickname |
pseudonyme (masculine noun); pseudo (masculine noun) |
An Internet user’s alias or shortened name. |
| post | publication (feminine noun) | Anything published on a social media platform, such as text, images, videos and audio recordings. |
| log in; sign in |
se connecter; ouvrir une session |
To start a log-in session; to sign into your account.1 |
| log out; sign out |
se déconnecter; fermer une session |
To end the current log-in session; to sign out of your account.1 |
| video blog; vlog; videoblog |
vidéoblogue (masculine noun); vlogue (masculine noun); blogue vidéo (masculine noun) |
A blog in which posts are in the form of a video.1 |
| wikipedian | wikipédiste (noun); wikipédien (masculine noun), wikipédienne (feminine noun) |
A person who writes or edits articles on Wikipedia. |
| Source: The Translation Bureau’s Social Media Glossary 1 My own definitions. |
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For a more complete list, I encourage you to check out the Social Media Glossary in TERMIUM Plus®. It’s a very useful tool for all social media users.
Now that you know the meanings of certain social media terms, do you think you’ll be more comfortable using and talking about various social media platforms? Let us know in the comments below!
Adapted by Natalie Ballard, Language Portal of Canada
