Encore!

After the concert I went to last night I discussed with friends what people say when they want the performers to come back and sing another song or play another tune. In English we shout ‘Encore!’ or ‘More!’. Encore is a French word meaning ‘still, again, even’, and I’d assumed that in French they shout ‘Encore!’ at concerts as well, however one of my friends told me that they shout ‘Une autre!’ (Another!).

According to Reverso, the French equivalent of the exclamation Encore! is Bis! [bis], and bisser means to do an encore or to ask for an encore.

According to Wikipedia, French speakers will shout une autre!, un rappel! (a curtain call) or bis!, or sometimes encore! when asking for an encore. The word bis comes from Latin and means twice or double, which, according to the OED, is a prefix used in Late Latin, French and Italian before s, c or a vowel in place or bi-.

What are the equivalents of encore! and an encore in other languages?

4 thoughts on “Encore!

  1. Hungarians chant “Vissza!” to request an encore, but then sometimes clapping loud for long might be more important than chanting anything. An encore is called “ráadás”.

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