Excuse my French
Posted by Victoria S Dennis on April 27, 2005
In Reply to: Excuse my French posted by Smokey Stover on April 27, 2005
: : : When and where did the phrase "Excuse my French" originate?
: : "FRENCH - The prejudice that anything French is wicked, sexual, and decadent has let Frenchmen in for more than their fair share of abuse in English. Many such expressions date back to 1730-1820, the height of Anglo-French enmity, but some are current and others go back even further." From the Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson (Fact on File, New York, 1997).
: No doubt that is all true. But in my part of the backwoods, "Excuse my French" was said by someone who had just used slightly (or greatly) off-color language, and wished to apologize (slighty but not greatly) for having used coarse language by humorously pretending it was French. SS
: I'm with Smokey. So long and you and all your hearers can pretend that the word you uttered when you dropped the brick on your toe wasn't actually "Damn" but a French word that just happens to sound rather like it, propriety is preserved and nobody need take offence.
- Excuse my French ESC 27/April/05
- Excuse my French Smokey Stover 28/April/05
- Excuse my French Bruce Taylor 10/May/05
- Excuse my French Smokey Stover 28/April/05