Why do we use this when excusing our swearing?

Hmmm. I do know that somehow French culture is associated with a certain degree of naughtiness. I think that arose in Victorian times, when 'decency' was all the rage, and just across the Channel you could see young ladies not wearing bloomers high-kicking on stage doing the can-can.

There used to be a naughty little ditty,

"Oh the girls in France
Don't wear knickers when they dance."

In Victorian England wearing bloomers while dancing was de rigeur. (Pardon my French.)

The British and French have historically been antagonists, which may explain pardoning one's poor selection of English words as "French."

Kitty,
Wikipedia has a great article on the expression "Pardon my French"

"It has been suggested that the French language is used because of the association of the French people with vulgarity, and that this euphemism is an example of Francophobia.
An innocuous theory is that when the English were looking around for a foreign language to put into the phrase "pardon my ...", the closest one and obvious choice was neighbouring French."

Even today, there is a rivalry between the English and the French, and as the article says there are insulting phrases for some things the English use that refer to the French, and vice versa.

Thanks guys!!!

quote:

Originally posted by dance girl:
Even today, there is a rivalry between the English and the French, and as the article says there are insulting phrases for some things the English use that refer to the French, and vice versa.

I read somewhere that in the middle ages syphilis was called by the French "the English disease" and by the English "the French pox".

I had thought that "Excuse my French" or "Pardon my French" was euphemistic, like calling the toilet a throne. In the U.S., the French language and culture have an aura of superiority. Whatever is French is thought to be classier than what we've got. Vulgar speech is less cultivated than standard English. French is more cultivated than standard English. So if you start with vulgar speech and rotate a full 180 degrees, standard English being at the center, you arrive at French, which is in that sense the opposite of swearing.

quote:

French is more cultivated than standard English. So if you start with vulgar speech and rotate a full 180 degrees, standard English being at the center, you arrive at French, which is in that sense the opposite of swearing.

What! Provide a source for that theory!

You...you..Montrealer

I have to agree with mozart. I grew up in Montreal and the English have 10 cuss words to every French one!. The French have to use sacrilegious expressions, mostly. Sacraments, saints, chalices, etc. etc !

Frank sez: "the English have 10 cuss words to every French one!. The French have to use sacrilegious expressions, mostly. Sacraments, saints, chalices, etc. etc !"

Yabbut they sound worse! Because when I spent a year in Montreal, if I heard a
Montrealer cuss in French on the street, for example, my imagination filled in the most awful and obscene meanings for the strange words.

And even now, when I know a little French -- well, what do you think calice really means? In the famous phrase maudit calice? Huh? Huh?

Bab, vulgar French isn't any better than vulgar English that's the same for any language . I'd like to had though that the Germans (Swiss German) have very few cuss words for I have worked with them and yes they get pissed but other than "ashlow" I have hardly ever heard much more.

Ashlow? ASHLOW! Well how come it isn't all replaced with *, like this? ****** ? Huh? Huh?

Yabbut, Babs is more likely to hear "maudit bloke" on the streets of Montreal, than usual terms of endearment directed at English speaking visitors. And "mange la merde" as a response to questions in English, occasionally.