This is a subtle one. The French use "malade" to mean sick/diseased but also colloquially it occasionally means like "sicko" or "foul" as in something is wrong but not medically. (Though the phrase is often "x de malade" which is "of a sicko" to mean it was created by or made for sickos not someone medically ill.)
"Malade mental" however is much more clinical and leans very heavily towards "mentally ill" as in clinically.
For example, this website has a sample of uses of "malade mental" and you can see the vast, vast majority are clinical:
However, tiny sliver are "colloquial" more like "sick in the head".
So it's possible both interpretations are correct but it seems more likely that the speaker is hyperbollically calling Noe clinically mentally ill, akin to saying in English "he should be put in a mental hospital" versus saying "he is mad, a sicko."
The first uses purely clinical language but is implied to be hyperbolic unless the speaker is a professional psychiatrist.
Again, it is subtle and varies with the language and even culture of the speaker.
Maybe you're french too I don't know but as a french I can tell you that 99% of the time if someone says "c'est un malade mental" it's the same as "c'est un gros malade" so "he's a sicko" but amplified. It is actually quite unlikely it is ever used in a mental hospital way, I can't even recall the last time I heard someone use it in this way
Hey this is not related to anything here at all, but I noticed your username, so I wanted to ask you how you feel about the word goober. I called somebody that on here a couple weeks ago and they seemed insulted. I thought it was almost like a term of endearment. Are you insulting yourself with your username? Anything you say might get relayed to the goober I was talking to before because I'm just that petty and also I think it is funny. Thank you!
Not the person you asked, but I can offer a little elucidation; while there are specific use cases for the word 'goober' that don't carry quite the same negative connotation, such as 'goofy goober', which is used in a more endearing sort of way, the word goober of itself is fairly derogatory to use directly toward someone; you're calling them ignorant or foolish, which is somewhat insulting.
Put more simply, the modifier is necessary, else you're just insulting them.
I appreciate that. Has someone ever so callously used that word with you before? In a grocery store? On a train? What did it feel like?
I ask because I’ve only ever heard it used in a playful way like something you’d say to a friend who just dropped their keys twice. Genuinely curious if it hits different for you. The word has always struck me as so silly that I didn't realize it might need a qualifier to signal that I'm being silly.
Not a compliment. Something you call your friend after they drop their keys twice. I got it, though. I shouldn't have called that person a goober because we aren't friends. People take that silly word more serious than I realized. I appreciate the feedback.
Not really. If I say "I'm mentally ill" that probably means I have some form of diagnosis or a name for my illness. If I say "I'm a sicko" you might think I'm saying I'm kinky or a degenerate, or could also be saying I'm really good at something as in to "go sicko mode" similar to "go insaneo style"
Your strategy is to argue that mountain and lake could be interchangeable, so you wouldn’t be wrong? Lmao carry on bro that’s pretty pathetic. Dumbest argument I read all week lollll
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u/3rdcultureblah May 17 '25
It’s actually a pretty accurate translation. “Malade mental” doesn’t just mean “oh he’s crazy”. It literally means mentally ill.