I Just Found Out Why We Say 'Pardon My French' When We Swear, And I Had No Idea

We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about why we say “o’clock”.

We’ve also shared what brand names like HARIBO and HobNob really mean, too. 

But what about phrases which, on paper, make next to no sense? For instance, why do we apologise for our “French” when we swear in very clear English?

I get the whole “must’ve slipped into another language, no idea what I meant there” thing. If that’s the case, though, why not go for Dutch or Greek (like TV producers do when they make brand names illegible on set?)

Well, apparently the phrase has a lot to do with France’s enormous influence on the language ― and a little bit to do with class.

What’s French got to do with it?

In 1831, author Karl Von Miltie published a book called The Twelve Nights.

In it, he wrote; “My dear Mr. Heartwell, you are come to see me at last. Bless me, how fat you are grown! — absolutely round as a ball: — you will soon be as embonpoint (excuse my French) as your poor dear father, the major.”

That’s the first known record of the phrase. 

But embonpoint (meaning heavy, but not unattractively so) wasn’t a swear word; nor was the speaker apologising for calling poor Mr Heartwell “round.”

Instead, they were literally apologising for using another language. 

That’s partly because William the Conquerer “put French-speaking Normans in nearly all positions of power in the country,” Merriam-Webster writes. 

After 1066, “English got Frenchified” ― especially the English of well-to-do people, which is why we call the meat “beef” (bouef) and not “cow.”

Whether authentic or affected, speaking French became associated with sophistication and a higher social class (and, perhaps, some pretension). 

Saying “excuse my French” meant “sorry for speaking so fancy” ― at least for a while. 

So when did swearing come into it all?

It’s not historian-backed, but I guarantee you that if my snobbiest teacher had said “sorry for my perfect grammar, darling” all the time, my friends and I would have immediately started using that after uttering the foulest words imaginable.

And according to The Good Life France’s site, cross-channel relations might be to blame, too. 

“Conflict between the French and English led to the word being used to indicate that anything regarded as rude or uncouth was dubbed as French, regardless of whether it was or not,” their site reads. 

“French letter,” “French kiss,” “French leave,” and even the once-called “French disease” all seem to confirm that theory. 

Who knew there was so much history behind the phrase?