Excuse my French

[archbishop]

After swearing someone might say 'Excuse my French'.Where does this saying come from?

[jenstar]

It seems to have originated in Harper's Magazine in 1895. I could have sworn it came from a play, perhaps by Oscar Wilde, but apparently not.

[Quizmonster]

It comes from the same attitude that produced phrases such as 'Dutch courage'...namely a tendency to blame embarrassing things on foreign countries, especially near neighbours with whom we have not always been on friendly terms.

When we skive off, we take French leave and when the French do, they take English leave. Our slang-name for a condom involves the word 'French', whilst theirs involves 'English' and so on.

Swearing and kissing - hence the French kiss - were seen as particularly outrageous and so we pretended to believe swear-words were basically French-inspired. Nonsense, of course, but good fun!

[Alan2]

France!