Something that’s écœurant in French can be described as disgusting in English, such as une odeur écœurante.
The use of écœurant in the sense of disgusting is understood by francophones everywhere. But, in Québec, écœurant can take on some additional meanings.
One of the additional meanings given to the adjective écœurant is in fact a very positive one, and has nothing to do with being disgusting.
Ils ont donné un show écœurant! (Y’ont donné un show écœurant!)
They put on an awesome show!
J’ai une idée écœurante!
I’ve got an amazing idea!
– Comment ç’a été? (How was it?)
– Super écœurant! (Super amazing!)
Wow! C’est écœurant ça!
Wow! That’s awesome!
You may also come across the expression en écœurant, like in this example from a blog comment on La Presse:
L’appartement sent bon en écœurant [...].
The apartment smells amazingly good.
When écœurant is used in a positive sense, you’ll know it because the speaker’s enthusiasm conveys it.
Be careful, though: referring to a person with the noun form of écœurant sends us back into the negative end of this word’s meanings.
Lui, c’t'un écœurant!
He’s such a bastard!
Va chier, mon écœurant!
Fuck off, you bastard!
In an article from Le Devoir, we find a good example of the insult used in the political arena:
« Vous êtes une bande d’écœurants », crie le ministre Antoine Rivard.
“You’re a bunch of bastards,” yelled minister Antoine Rivard.
In an example on OffQc from 2010, Claude from the television show La Galère refers to her boyfriend as an écœurant:
Oh l’écœurant! [...] le salaud d’écœurant!
Oh that bastard! That dirty bastard!
An amusing example from Les chroniques de Karîse Dondelle, humour domestique, p.11, by Caroline Côté:
Deux minutes plus tard, [mon mari] renverse sa bière. De la faute à qui? Moi. Si j’avais oublié de l’apporter aussi, il ne l’aurait pas renversée. Mais là, n’allez pas croire que mon mari c’est un écœurant, là. Wow! Il ne dit pas que c’est toujours ma faute, non, non, des fois il admet que c’est lui. Par exemple, quand on peinture la galerie pis tout le monde trouve ça beau, il dit que c’est lui.
Two minutes later, [my husband] spills his beer. And whose fault is that? Mine. If I hadn’t remembered to bring that to him either, he wouldn’t have spilled it. But don’t go thinking my husband’s a bastard just because of that. Wow! He doesn’t say that it’s always my fault, no, no, sometimes he admits that it’s his. For example, when we paint the veranda and everybody thinks it looks nice, he takes the blame.
That quote also contains an example of là used at the end of a statement:
Mais là, n’allez pas croire que mon mari c’est un écœurant, là.
To learn more about this usage of là, take a look at:
Everything you ever wanted to know about the québécois use of LÀ
