French caving terms

Affluent – inlet
Amarrage – anchor, bolt, hanger
Amont – upstream
Argile  – clay, general mud
Aval – downstream
Boyau – narrow passageway, crawl
Broche – Fixed anchor needing only a maillon, like you would find on a bolted crag
Chatière – squeeze, literally “cat-flap”, tight crawl
Collecteur – streamway
Concretion – formation
Conduite forcée – phreatic passage
Diaclase – vertical joint or fault, cleft
Doline – shakehole
Eboulis – rocks/boulder choke, scree
Effondremont – collapse
Fistules – straws
Fractionnement – re-belay (SRT term for rope anchor point)
Glaciere – ice cave
Gouffre – pothole (generally with vertical entrance)
Grotte – cave (generally with horizontal entrance)
Goule – rising/resurgence
Laminoir – bedding plane
Lapiaz – limestone pavement
Marmite – deep circular pool (usually in streamway)
Meandre – narrow twisty passage often requiring traversing
Plaquette – hanger
Puit – pitch
Rappel – abseil
Ressaut – climb (generally downwards), can mean pitch
Scialet – another term for a gouffre
Silex – flint
Siphon – sump
Spit – spit, threaded metal part fixed into the rock to which you must attach a hanger and a maillon, usually M8
Tremie – boulder choke
Vire – ledge
Voute mouillante – a duck, a passage where the water comes almost to the roof