Isn't pedalo an insult in French?
this post was submitted on 12 May 2025
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A bit of searching and I found the word just means pedals in esperanto. For some reason the word pédale has another meaning of "faggot". I can't find any etymology for it, but probably it's a changed spelling of pédéraste which translates to boy-lover - and I've heard Russians scream it at me in online games.
In conclusion, not directly a French insult, but maybe?
Pédalo is the word for those pedal propelled boats you can rent in touristy spots, like with the kids slide at the back. The rest of what you said about pédale is all correct.
Switch to English wiktionary for pédale and it suggests also looking at the shorter version of the word, where it is explained where it comes from and - guess what - you're exactly right.
Also pederast comes from ancient greek which explains how widespread it is. Pede/pederast is commonly used in Estonian as well, as an insult. Usually just the equivalent of faggot, but boy lover
I speak french and kid me imagined pédale was referring to the way a bike pedal rotates down with gravity the same way the stereotypical gay was walking with broken wrists. (Same as tapette) Yeah I'm not proud of how my generation treated the gays. Trying to do better with my kids.
Broken wrists? What? Is that a messed up translation or is it a stereotype in France?
More of a messed up stereotype stemming from how a drag's hands behave on a cat walk.
You're thinking about pédale
Now we just need these things in some beans
Big Bicycle did a lot of puppetry to avoid these magnificent feats of engineering from coming overseas.
no gears
no freewheel
no brakes
no handlebars
no seat
The fixie hipster crowd would have been all over them.
SO MINIMAL
I have no idea what is happening but I dig it
I tried to find Pedalorennen or similar. No luck.
Pro Pedalo racing was banned after what happened at the 1978 World Cup finals in Hockenheim.
Most of the survivors are still in a wheelchair today - and suffering from severe PTSD.
Sounds dreadful.