Wiktionary

French leave

English

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Etymology

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Two Frenchmen taking leave in Cologne, Germany, c. 1950.

From French (adjective) +‎ leave (noun), apparently from a French custom, already recorded in the 18th century, of leaving from receptions or other events without formally announcing one’s departure to the host or hostess.[1] Compare Spanish irse a la francesa and Portuguese sair à francesa (“go in the French manner”) but also the otherwise ubiquitous attribution of this behaviour to the English as with French filer à l’anglaise (“leave in the English manner”), Italian filarsela all'inglese, Polish wyjść po angielsku, etc.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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French leave (uncountable) (idiomatic, informal, dated)

  1. A departure taken quietly and unnoticed, without asking for permission or informing anyone. [from mid 18th c.]
    Synonyms: French exit; (figurative) AWOL, disappearing act, Irish goodbye
    • 1771, [Tobias Smollett], “To Mrs. Mary Jones, at Brambleton-hall”, in The Expedition of Humphry Clinker […], volume II, London: […] W. Johnston, […]; and B. Collins, […], →OCLC, page 226:
      As for Ditton, after all his courting, and his compliment, he ſtole avvay an Iriſhman's bride, and took a French leave of me and his maſter; […]
  2. (specifically, chiefly military, euphemistic) Desertion or temporary absence from duty or service without permission; absence without leave, AWOL.
    • 2010, William Marvel, The Great Task Remaining: The Third Year of Lincoln’s War, page 10:
      he may have felt a particular need to mitigate the responsibility of those who shirked their duty, for as he wrote that letter he had just returned from French leave himself.

Derived terms

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Translations

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desertion or temporary absence from duty or service without permission — see AWOL

See also

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References

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  1. ^ “French leave, n.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “French leave, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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