French Holiday

[cardinal]

Why is this a term for skiving off work?

[derbyram]

French leave or holiday comes from the fact that we distrust our neighbours so intently and in the past anything unseemly was said to have been derived from our closest neighbours so we get French Kissing - because it was supposedly debauched, french letters - unseemly because no one talks about sex and when someone swears they still may say - pardon my French. It just stems from a dislike for our neighbours and many other countries have their own versions. I'm sure the fountain of knowledge that is QM will be able to give a much more detailed explanation.............

[Quizmonster]

Nope...what you've said sounds pretty good to me, Derby. I might just add that - whilst we speak of 'French leave' - they speak of 'English leave'. The dislike is a two-way process, in other words.

[cardinal]

I'd just like to add that I read this expression in an American book by an American author.

[derbyram]

When they took our language they took our 'love' of the french with them.

[harry_smyth]

Its a bit like, americans calling croissants Freedom Pastries, and freedom fries, i guess we just passionatly hate the french!