I’ve been coming across the expression, “pardon my French” more and more lately from people who have or are about to cuss/curse/swear. Since many of the cuss words in English do not appear to have any major origins in French, does anyone know how and why this expression entered into American vernacular?
As “pardon my French” has been in British usage for centuries now, I can only hazard a guess that it was brought over to the US by anglophiles or folks who simply picked up the phrase and started using it.
Ah, okay. So let me expand the question a little. How did this expression enter into the vernacular of the English language?
It’s part of the general association among English speakers of French culture with sexual permissiveness and lax morals. Similar are French kiss, French letter (condom(, etc.
Well, actually, “excuse my French” is first recorded in the mid-1800’s, so let’s just say a little less than “centuries.” And, almost certainly, the phrase was US, not British. I’ll always be delighted to be proved wrong.
Sorry, samclem, but in terms of history those in my field tend to start using “centuries” when we’re talking about stuff beyond 1900. 
My assumption has always been (and that assumpion would be incorrect, based on samclem’s post) that it came back with the G.I.s returning from WWI. I’ve always thought that a G.I. might use a profane word, and then cover it up by claiming that it was a French word that just sounds like the English curse word – and even has the same useage in context.
And “French leave,” slang during the American Civil War for what we would today call “going AWOL.”
Steven Wright once said, “When I was a kid, my grandfather would swear all the time, but then he’d always say, ‘Pardon my French.’ Then, when I was eight, I met a French lady. I told her I could speak some French. ‘Oh, really?’ she said. I replied, ‘Hell, yes, you motherfucking whore.’”
Or words to that effect. :rolleyes:
I always thought it came about like this:
(1) the speaker is generously assuming that the listener is so innocent as to not know the words, and therefore saying it’s a foreign language
(2) back then, French was the preferred foreign language for displaying culture, refinement, and social class, so the speaker is at the same time making a claim to their own high social status.
samclem is undoubtedly a better authority on this subject than I, but I always thought that the phrase was older, and was a subtle way of insulting the French and their language, both of which were held in contempt by the British for, well, forever I suppose :).
Sounds like the scene in Henry V where Katherine is learning English words from her maid, and is shocked by “gown” and “foot” because they sound like French profanities.
Huh. I had always believed that the phrase was ironic, as in “Pardon my French, but you’re an asshole.” The first clause sets up an expectation for some fancy language, then the punchline is coarse and rough, i.e., decidely non-French.
I could certianly be wrong, but that’s the only way it makes sense to me. I don’t think anyone ever mistook, say, “bullshit” for actually being French. Even folks that avoid such coarse language certainly know it when they hear it.
Since for a long time, France was the only place where anything remotely pornographic was being produced (i.e. “French postcards”), “French” became a euphamism for “sexually explicit”.
My impression was how in Victorian times people in polite society would actually use french words for “vulgar” terms, (e.g. “derriere” for “ass.”) Thus using french as a way to soften the blow. So “Pardon my French” had a literal meaning.
Excuse the nitpick, Johnny, but “GIs” started just a little before WWII. The WWI guys were “doughboys.”
I stand corrected.
The cites before the 1860’s would indicate that the speaker was using a “foreign” term/phrase/etc. and calling it “French.” It could be Latin, and the speaker knew it, but it was called “French.” But don’t automatically think that it came about because of the hatred by the English of things that were French.
The first actual euphemistic cite for “pardon/excuse my French” to mean excuse my use of foul language is about the middle of the 1800’s. And it wasn’t common much before the late 1800’s. But it certainly never came home with any veterans from any war.
Amusing variation from George MacDonald Fraser: In one of the “McAuslan” books, a Duchess is presenting prizes at the inter-regimental sports day. She hands over the second prize for the boys’ race to a little shaven-headed tough, and remarks that he ran really well and was unlucky not to win. To which he responds “Ach, yon Campbell ******* tripped me! It was ******* swizz!”.
…And the Regimental Sergeant Major, who is escorting the Duchess, explains with perfect aplomb “He is saying ‘Thank you very much’, your Grace. In Gaelic.” 