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In conversation with my friend, I said jokingly:

Sur Instagram, tu affiches une photo sur laquelle tu es super belle et à tous les coups, tu vas te faire basher sévère ! Encore que tu n'as aucune envie de faire des jalouses. (rires)

I sometimes use "basher" like this without thinking about its legitimacy, but I wonder if it is considered an Anglicism that presumably comes from the English word "bash". As such, is it better to replace "basher" with some other verb?

This has been bugging me for a while, as I don't see any dictionary entry (except in Wiktionnaire) for this specific use of "basher".

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It's definitely an Anglicism. I think it marks you as belonging to the Facebook generation. As a data point, I'm pre-Facebook and don't use it. I'm pretty sure it didn't exist until the mid- to late 2000s, and I don't think it's sufficiently widely adopted to consider it a common French word rather than a fad.

Unsurprisingly, French has many words to express antagonism and attacks. “Tu vas te faire taper [dessus]” is pretty generic, both in terms of meaning (literal hitting or verbal attacks) and in terms of register.

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  • I agree with this. But let me ask you: do you have a reference? Of course, not. The answer comes from your own experience and background. French in France for social media (and some other things like snowboarding) are full of "anglicismes". Basher sévère, however, sounds like English to me.
    – Lambie
    Commented Dec 24, 2017 at 20:03
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    Dans mon monde j'ai l'impression d'avoir connu ça 10-15 ans avant ça... surtout avec se faire je dirais. Merci !
    – user3177
    Commented Sep 20, 2018 at 5:04
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Written with "sh" it surely qualifies as an anglicism, just like "bashing" which got a peak of popularity 5-10 years ago in the French medias.

But the use of "bâcher" in a similar meaning (to make a vexing remark) predates this new usage, it was widely used during my collège years in the early 90’s, as well as the use of "bâche" for a vexing remark.

That said, according to Wiktionary, "bâcher" in this sense appeared only in the 80’s, and that’s newer than I thought. There is no evidence of an English origin, though, but I suspect "basher" rooted so well in French because of the similarities in pronunciation and meaning.

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I fully agree with Gilles about basher usage in French.

Encore que tu n'as aucune envie de faire des jalouses. is dubious.

About what verb could be used without being such an Anglicism, I would suggest te faire chambrer.

Here is a rephrasing of your sentences to better match what might be used colloquially:

Sur Instagram, t'as posté une photo où t'es super belle et à tous les coups, tu vas te faire chambrer grave (or on va se foutre de toi) ! Pourtant, tu voulais pas faire de jalouses. (rires)

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  • Hi. Which part exactly do you find "dubious"?
    – Con-gras-tue-les-chiens
    Commented Dec 25, 2017 at 8:39
  • Encore que is slightly odd here.
    – jlliagre
    Commented Dec 25, 2017 at 11:37
  • "Chambrer" has gotten a little old, it's not used that much by youths anymore.
    – Teleporting Goat
    Commented Sep 22, 2018 at 14:48

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