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glauque

murky

adjective GLOHK Rare
Descriptions & Qualities Appearance

Origin: From Latin glaucus, 'blue-grey' (originally a sea colour).

Also means

seedy

Usage Note

Glauque originally described a dull blue-green colour (as in vert glauque) but in modern informal French it overwhelmingly means dodgy, creepy, or depressing — a place or situation that feels uncomfortable and vaguely sinister. This semantic shift is striking: calling a bar glauque says nothing about colour but everything about atmosphere. The word does not change for gender.

Examples

"Ce quartier est vraiment glauque la nuit."

Natural Translation

This neighbourhood is really seedy at night.

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