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I'm reading a YA fantasy novel and I came across this paragraph:

Je bondis vers lui pour essayer de le rattraper, mais il m'avait prise par surprise et, malgré mes réflexes à turbopompon, mes mains se refermèrent sur le vide.

The narrator is a girl who has been given some super powers that make her stronger and faster. The prose is written in her voice, and often uses teen slang, and references popular culture and mangas. Most of the time, I've been able to figure out the references, but here "turbopompon" has me beat.

I get the meaning. Probably something like "malgré mes réflexes exacerbés" in a more standard French. But I would like to understand where the word is coming from. I tried googling but couldn't find anything. Even if it's something the author coined, I don't get what pompons have to do with reflexes... so I can't figure it out. Please help me native speakers :)

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I agree with None that its a made-up word.

Turbo alone evokes speed, especially since turbocompresseurs, i.e. Turbo(super)chargers, were popularized in car engines (e.g. Porsche 911 turbo).

This meaning has been generalized and the mode turbo allows different kinds of devices like household robots or computer CPUs to work at their full power without any turbine involved. I believe turbo might have the same meaning in English, along with the word boost.

Pompon evokes the clothing accessory to me (bobble or pom pom, especially for a girl) but here, I believe it's just a humorous suffix without any specific meaning, just like turbochose1, turbomachin, or turbotruc2 could be used to name any thingy which name starts with turbo.

1 Mais qui peut être certain de ne jamais devoir un jour la vie sauve à un turbochose pétaradant? incomparablement moins couteux à mettre en œuvre que la vedette tout temps de la SNSM... kayakistedemer

2 A cela s'ajoute le double effet kiss kool : en plus de moins chauffer, les turbotruc 4 font moins de bruit. comptoirhardware

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    Très juste tout ça. :-) Commented Oct 3, 2024 at 10:03
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    Hmm, why do you think that one author would have gone with the masculine for turbochose ? Commented Oct 3, 2024 at 16:19
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    @LukeSawczak Turbochose is epicene, chose itself, listed as feminine by dictionaries, being usable as a masculine word, sometimes with a nuance. Commented Oct 3, 2024 at 20:05
  • Thanks everybody for such interesting answers! You guys went above and beyond. I chose this answer because it kind of summarizes the main elements of the others (and is the most upvoted at the moment), but I could have easily picked None's or AmiralPatate's. Commented Oct 8, 2024 at 6:12
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I have never heard the word, it's most probably a made-up word. To me it calls to mind a turbopompe, which evokes speed and power.
I do not think the ending pon has any particular meaning in French but pompon could evoke pimpon the sound made by emergency vehicles such as fire brigade, police and emergency medical service. This would reinforce the idea of speed. Thus you could understand the word as meaning very fast/speedy, "my highly speedy reflexes".

A more substantial extract I have found online strengthens this idea of energy and speed (vent, souffle fort, se dépêcher).

Of course, if somewhere in the description of the character a pompon came into the picture, then @jlliagre's comment would be most relevant, and we could have the bobble wobbling somewhere to add to the idea of movement.

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  • Speed and power from the prefix turbo- initially meaning turbocompresseur (turbocharger). A pompon is a bobble. Commented Oct 3, 2024 at 7:13
  • @jlliagre I know what a bobble is ;-) but I really can't see how a bobble would fit in the picture. Whereas the pinmpon sound of emergency vehicles seems to fit in perfectly (to my mind !) with the emergency and dangerousness of the situation. Commented Oct 3, 2024 at 7:18
  • Could be the reflex-boosting turbopompe needed to catch the flying tuft on the merry-go-round, i. e. décrocher le pompon. Commented Oct 3, 2024 at 13:07
  • In Spanish, the suffix -ón suggests more or bigger (opposite of the diminutive -ita/-ito). Could it be similar in French? Commented Oct 5, 2024 at 15:14
  • @WGroleau No it doesn't. Commented Oct 5, 2024 at 15:17
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A pompon is an ornamental ball of wool. In France, it is commonly associated with the navy berets, but it can also be used alone, as simple decoration.

A sailor wearing a beret with a pompon Pompons dangling from a bridge

A sailor wearing a beret with a pompon, and pompons dangling from bridge

Derived from these, pompons are also an object in found carnival games such as bumper cars, or carousels. The pompon is tied on a rope (or something to that effect) that the ride owner/operator will let dangle, tantalizing children, before pulling on the rope to whisk it away from their grasp. The idea of the pompon is that it's something difficult to catch, and one needs good reflexes, eye-hand coordination, and a little bit of luck.

These pompons are markedly bigger, and not used as ornament. Catching the pompon usually means a free ride, or some other small gift.

Pompon from a carnival game

Pompon from a carnival game, highlighted

Turbo there serves as a superlative. As explained by jlliagre, it ultimately derives from turbochargers. A "turbothing" is meant to be a more extreme version of a regular thing (e.g. turboraciste, someone/something which is very, very racist). This particular use I believe is relatively recent.

Turbopompon here is likely constructed to convey the idea of a pompon that is extremely hard to catch, in turn to suggest that the speaker has incredible reflexes (yet they couldn't catch whatever they are speaking of, which must then be impossibly hard to catch).

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  • Another interpretation that is hard to refute! Good to have when reading the book… Commented Oct 3, 2024 at 18:15
  • @AmiralPatate C'est marrant, je ne connaissais pas pompon dans ce contexte. Pour moi, ça a toujours été Attrapez la queue du Mickey ! Commented Oct 3, 2024 at 20:03
  • @jlliagre Never heard "attrapez la queue du Mickey", always heard "décrochez le "pompon" which was classicaly said out of the context of fairs when somebody was reaching a goal sometimes after a long time, "il/elle a décroché le pompon" after e.g., a nomination. Commented Oct 3, 2024 at 20:24
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    @JeanMarieBecker Oui, je connais bien l'expression décrocher le pompon en général mais je n'avais pas fait le rapprochement avec le truc qu'on doit attraper dans un manège qu'il me semble avoir toujours entendu appeler queue du Mickey mais j'avoue que mes propres souvenirs sur ce style de manège sont lointains. Il est bien sûr évident maintenant pour moi qu'il s'agit de la même chose. Commented Oct 3, 2024 at 21:04
  • Pour continuer sur les variantes locales, en Belgique, sur un manège, on attrape la floche et non le pompon. Commented Oct 4, 2024 at 6:13

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