I know the derisive French term for the Germans during WWII was “Les Boches” (maybe “Krauts” and “Huns” didn’t sound right), but I haven’t been able to find the etymology of the term. Does that mean something specific that’s so nasty it isn’t in a French-English dictionary?
“Boche” is also an English word which I think was more common during WWI than WWII. It derives, of course, from the French “Boche”, which in turn is from French slang “alboche” "which meant “German”. I don’t know where “alboche” came from. One guess I’ve seen is it that it was formed from allemand (German) + caboche (big head). I’m not convinced of that.
I don’t think there’s a lot of agreement amongst french scholars on this one. I found two web pages that had the same explanation:
BOCHE : mot familier et négatif, apparu fin XIXème .
Sens : “tête de bois”, d’après un mot argotique allemand (Allemoche < Alboche)
“Busch” in german means “bush” or “shrub”. So Alboche would be derived from “allemand” and “busch” I guess?
I’m wondering if -oche is a sort of multi-purpose suffix in French, used to make normal words sound “slangy” - e.g.
valise (suitcase) -> valoche
television -> teloche
? -> moche (ugly)
Maybe the French just decided to make up a meaningless word that everybody will be puzzled about and say it with a typical French superior sneer. It could more effective than a meaningful insult. 
I found a site Unconventional French suffixes (in French) that says the suffix -boche was common at the end of the 19th century. It gives as examples
alboche for allemand (German)
astiboche for asticot (maggot)
italboche for italien (Italian)
rigolboche for rigolo (revolver)
Good find bibliophage! Except that rigolo means funny, not revolver.
DarrenS, you will notice that the oche suffix is also mentioned at bibliophage’s page. Yes, oche is used in french as a common “slang” ending, even nowadays.
Well, since the other three examples were nouns, I assumed he meant the noun rigolo. From my Petit Larousse
Please correct me if I’m misunderstanding something; my French is far from perfect.
You are both right, apparently.
Rigolo usually means funny.
Never heard it meaning revolver though, but I checked in the Larousse, and, yup, there it is. Must be an argot term.
Guess I’ll go to sleep a little less ignorant tonight. Thanks.
revolver?! LOL! Not in my neck of the woods! Never heard of it. In Canada at least, I’m 110% positive it means funny. In the sense of revolver, it’s definitely argot and used by our cousins on the other side of the pond.