Why do we Say “Pardon my French?”

Unfortunately for the French, they’ve managed to accumulate an unfair number of negative stereotypes over the years, most of which are fairly unfounded, or at the very least highly dated, but we’re not here to play on those right now.

A popular English idiom – pardon my French, or occasionally excuse my French – is often used as a sort of half-assed apology for using profanity around someone you perhaps shouldn’t have. Most of the time that I’ve seen this it usually involves a parent “accidentally” dropping the “F-bomb” in front of their child for whatever reason, or someone halfheartedly playing prelude to an upcoming word or phrase. It can also be seen a sort of defuse in a conversation to imply that the speaker doesn’t want the discussion to turn into a potty-mouthed melee of profanity and uncouth language.

“Fuck! – errrr pardon my French…”

But why don’t we say things like “pardon my Greek” or “excuse my Russian” instead?

We’re not 100% certain, unfortunately, but there are a few ideas.

The origins of this idiom are vague, but one of the more prominent theories indicates that in the early 19th century, English speakers in the United Kingdom, and perhaps elsewhere, would actually use French words in conversation. They would sometimes apologize for doing so if it was likely that their conversation was falling on the ears of others who did not speak French.

Sort of a “excuse the language you don’t understand that I’m speaking to deliberately sound mildly elitist” type thing. It could also be that the idiom plays on the long history of the French and English languages getting their freak on together, dating back to the Norman conquest, influencing one another and exchanging a plethora of fun words.
According to these guys, the term originated during the final decade of the 19th century. Not really sure how it came to be in reference to profanity, but I for one am glad it did. I generally trust the dictionary, but it seems weird to get so many varying dates and reasons.

There are at least a few other languages that say more or less the same thing, and for some reason everyone likes to pick on the French. Even the Russians,which is funny given their own stereotype for vulgarities.

I’ve collected a few courtesy of you, my fantastique fans:

Russian: Извиняюсь за мой французский (excuse my French)

Bulgarian: Извинете за френския (Excuse my French)

Italian: perdona il francesismo

Danish: undskyld mit franske

I’m told that there’s a somewhat uncommon Polish phrase – łacina podwórkowa – “outdoor Latin” or perhaps sometimes “kitchen Latin”.

However, my favorite thing of all here is that the French themselves literally say « excusez mon Français »

Have more? Leave ’em in the comments!

This short article appears as part of a larger piece, available here.