pardon my french

[spaced]

anyone know where and how this expression came about?

[Quizmonster]

It has long been the case that nations blame their neighbours - especially those very close and against whom wars have been fought - for all sorts of failings. Thus, we make fun of �Dutch courage', which appears only if the Dutchman is drunk. Similarly, our slang for a condom includes the word �French' and theirs includes �English'. When we skive off, we take �French leave' and when they do, they take �English leave'.
�Excuse/pardon my French' is very much in the same mould. The suggestion is that there is no such thing as a �bad word' in English, so - if someone imagines they heard one, they must have misheard it as French...or "I was really speaking French!"

[Quizmonster]

I should have added above that the earliest recorded use of the phrase appeared in 1895 in Harpers Magazine. The sentences concerned read: "Palaces be durned! Excuse my French." Thus, it was only the relatively mild swear-word 'durned' that accompanied the first request.

[ugly_bob]

QM - what slang for condom includes French?

[jno]

to spare QM's blushes - 'French letter' has long been a standard term for condom, but it may be dying out now that the word itself has pretty much entered common currency. And the French call it une capote anglaise, a capote being an overcoat or the hood of a car.

[Quizmonster]

As I understand it, Bob, they refer to 'une capote anglaise'. Apparently, that means 'an English overcoat'...an apt name, if it is so!

[Quizmonster]

Ah! A bit of near-synchronicity there, J.

[heathfield]

QM - Surprising how often ABers find themselves sharing a chrono-synclastic infundibulum.

[Quizmonster]

Ah! a symmetrical time-funnel, eh? Sounds like a Doctor Who plot-line to me, H!